  This study explores how thermal disequilibrium during melt-infiltration and
melt-rock interaction may modify the continental lithosphere from beneath.
Using an idealized 1D model of thermal disequilibrium between melt-rich
channels and the surrounding melt-poor material, I estimate heat exchange
across channel walls during channelized melt transport at the
lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB). For geologically-reasonable values of
the volume fraction of channels ($\phi$), relative velocity across channel
walls ($v$), channel spacing ($d$), and the timescale of episodic
melt-infiltration ($\tau$), model results suggest disequilibrium heating may
contribute $>$ $10^{-3}$ W/m$^3$ to the LAB heat budget. During episodic
melt-infiltration, a thermal reworking zone (TRZ) associated with
spatio-temporally varying disequilibrium heat exchange forms at the LAB. The
TRZ grows by the transient migration of a disequilibrium-heating front at
material-dependent velocity, reaching a maximum steady-state width $\delta\sim$
$\left[\phi vd^{-2}\tau^{2} \right]$. The spatio-temporal scales associated
with establishment of the TRZ are comparable with those inferred for the
migration of the LAB based on geologic observations within continental
intra-plate settings, such as the western US.
