Reply to the comment by D. D. Blackwell and G. R. Priest on “heat flow from four new research drill holes in the Western Cascades, Oregon, U.S.A.” by S. E. Ingebritsen, M. A. Scholl and D. R. Sherrod [Geothermics 22, 151–163 (1993)]

We appreciate the opportunity to elucidate our thinking with respect to the issues raised by Blackwell and Priest (1996; hereinafter B&P). Their commentary criticizes our analysis of heat-flow data from the north-central Oregon Cascades. In their view, we have relied too heavily on low-quality data, misinterpreted the data from some key drill holes, and contoured the data set in a misleading or overly detailed fashion. Here we will show that the differences between our heat-flow map and that of B&P do not depend on the details of the data set, but do depend fundamentally on how the data are interpreted and contoured. This reply is not a detailed, hole-by-hole rebuttal of the B&P commentary; such an approach would only obscure the fundamental differences between our respective analyses. Instead, we will highlight these differences by focusing on the "correct" data set endorsed by B&P (their Fig. 1). We do feel compelled to make at least a nominal defense of our own individual heat-flow interpretations, which we feel are generally as reasonable as those of B&P. However, instead of belaboring our own reasoning here, we simply encourage interested readers to refer to earlier publications. Our previous tabulations of the heat-flow data include the heat-flow estimates published by Blackwell and colleagues, along with their supporting data, so that the source(s) of any disagreement will be clear (Ingebritsen et al., 1988, pp. 7-33; 1994, pp. 73-86). As mentioned in the B&P commentary, our tabulations 715 716 S.E. lngebritsen et al. omitted certain heat-flow estimates reported by Blackwell et al. (1990). This was a conscious omission. Our tabulations were restricted to public-domain data, and the temperature-depth data upon which the omitted estimates were based had not been released. However, in the analysis below we include all of the heat-flow estimates endorsed by B&P.