Marine heat flow measurements usually require inserting temperature sensor probes into seafloor sediments. The probe entry displaces the sediments and causes frictional heating along the probe-sediment interface. Since the probe cools at a rate dependent primarily upon the sediment's thermal conductivity and heat capacity, analysis of the cooling data can yield not only ambient equilibrium temperature but also thermal properties. This paper describes a study which simulates the cooling process with a finite element method. Solutions are given for seven model-defining parameters using a least squares nonlinear inversion algorithm. Advective mass-heat transfer is incorporated by introducing a heat partition factor into the initial condition. The simulation provides a means of estimating frictional heat than can be considered as a heat pulse to determine thermal conductivity from an asymptotic relation between temperature rise and inverse time. Our simulation inversion is iterated until the simulated conductivity matches the ''asymptotic'' conductivity. Field tests indicate that the conductivity and equilibrium temperature can be satisfactorily determined from 5-min long recordings of temperature for 3 mm-diameter probes if the cooling is purely radial. For probes with sensors near their tips, conductivity determination is rendered uncertain because of more complex two-dimensional geometry and heating process, but the equilibrium temperature can still be determined. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994