Thread dumps are javacore show snapshot of threads running in JVM, it is useful to debug hang issues, it will provide info about java level dead locks and also IBm version of javacores provides much more useful information, such as heap usage, CPU usage of each thread and overall heap usage along with number of classes laded by the JVM.
Heapdumps, provides information about Java heap usage by an JVM, which can be used to debug memory leaks. Heapdumps are generated by IBM JVMs when a JVM is runs into outofmemoryerror, Heapdumps are only for heap leaks in java, native out of memory error may result system dumps usually with an "GPF" General protection Fault.