Thermoelastic stress in oceanic lithosphere due to hotspot reheating

Investigates the effect of hotspot reheating on the intraplate stress field by modeling the three-dimensional thermal stress field produced by nonuniform temperature changes in an elastic plate. Temperature perturbations are calculated assuming that the lithosphere is heated by a source in the lower part of the thermal lithosphere. A thermal stress model for the elastic lithosphere is calculated by superposing the stress fields resulting from temperature changes in small invididual elements. The thermal stress solution is applied to midplate swells in oceanic lithosphere with various thermal structures and plate velocities. Results indicate that thermal stress due to reheating may be an important contributor to stress fields near hotspots in old oceanic lithosphere. -from Authors