Thermal modeling is a technique used in thermochronology to reconstruct the temperature history of a rock over geological time.
Its goal is to answer questions such as:
Thermochronological methods (such as fission track or (U–Th)/He dating) provide data that reflect how a rock gained or lost temperature over time.
Thermal modeling uses this data to generate possible temperature-time trajectories.
The modeling combines information such as:
The software tests thousands or millions of possible thermal histories. It then compares which ones best reproduce the data measured in the laboratory.
The compatible trajectories represent the most likely thermal evolution.