Iceland Within the Northern Atlantic, Volume 1: Geodynamics and Tectonics

240 Pages·2021·59.759 MB·English

by  Brigitte Van Vliet-Lanoe

Iceland Within the Northern Atlantic 1
SCIENCES
Geoscience, Field Director – Yves Lagabrielle
Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Interactions, Subject Head – René Maury
Iceland Within the
Northern Atlantic 1
Geodynamics and Tectonics
Coordinated by
Brigitte Van Vliet-Lanoë
First published 2021 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced,
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ISTE Ltd John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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© ISTE Ltd 2021
The rights of Brigitte Van Vliet-Lanoë to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by
her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021932010

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78945-014-9
ERC code:
PE10 Earth System Science
PE10_5 Geology, tectonics, volcanology
PE10_13 Physical geography
PE10_18 Cryosphere, dynamics of snow and ice cover, sea ice, permafrosts and ice sheets
Contents
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Brigitte VAN VLIET-LANOË and Françoise BERGERAT
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Brigitte VAN VLIET-LANOË and René MAURY
Chapter 1. Iceland, in the Lineage of Two Oceans . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Brigitte VAN VLIET-LANOË and Françoise BERGERAT
1.1. Geographic and geodynamic context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2. Components of the North Atlantic domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.1. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.2. The North Atlantic Igneous Province . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.3. The Icelandic hot spot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2.4. The Greenland–Iceland–Faroe Ridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3. Geodynamic characteristics of Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.1. Seismicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.2. Icelandic volcanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.3. Eustatism and the Icelandic glaciers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
vi Iceland Within the Northern Atlantic 1
Chapter 2. Iceland, an Emerging Ocean Rift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Françoise BERGERAT
2.1. Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Icelandic hot spot interactions . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2. Present-day deformations in Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.1. Seismicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2.2. Motions at plate boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.3. Iceland’s main structural features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3.1. The paleo-rifts and the active rift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.3.2. The transform zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.4. Geothermal energy and hydrothermalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
2.4.1. Geothermal systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
2.4.2. Geysers and hydrothermalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2.5. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chapter 3. Iceland, A legacy of North Atlantic History . . . . . . . . . . 115
Laurent GEOFFROY
3.1. Bathymetry of the Northeast Atlantic domain and geoid anomalies . . 115
3.2. The North Atlantic and the continental breakup of Laurussia . . . . . . 117
3.2.1. Passive margins and large igneous provinces . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
3.2.2. The early beginnings of the opening of the
North Atlantic Ocean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
3.2.3.Thulean magmatism in the Paleocene and the
continental breakup of the Northeast Atlantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3.2.4. Chronology and kinematics of the opening of the
Northeast Atlantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
3.2.5. The Northeast Atlantic region: mantle plume or not? . . . . . . . . 151
3.3. The origin of Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3.3.1. The anomalous crust of the GIFR ridge and the deep
structure of Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3.3.2. Icelandic SDRs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
3.3.3. Interpretations of GIFR and Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
3.4. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Contents vii
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Françoise BERGERAT and Laurent GEOFFROY
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
List of Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Summary of Volume 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
List of Abbreviations
σ , σ and σ Maximum, intermediate and minimum principal stresses of the
1 2 3
stress tensor
σ Maximum horizontal stress
Hmax
A
AMO Atlantic multidecadal oscillation
B
BTVP British Tertiary Volcanic Province
C
CGFZ Charlie–Gibbs Fracture Zone
CGPS Communicative Global Positioning System
D
DL Dalvik Line
DMM Depleted MORB mantle
DO Dansgaard–Oeschger event
Iceland Within the Northern Atlantic 1,
coordinated by Brigitte VAN VLIET-LANOË. © ISTE Ltd 2021.
x Iceland Within the Northern Atlantic 1
DSOW Denmark Strait overflow water
DTM Digital terrain model
E
E-MORB Enriched mid-ocean ridge basalts
EM Enriched mantle
EUR Europe
EVZ East Volcanic Zone
F
FLF Flat-lying flows
G
GEBCO General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans
GIA Glacio-isostatic adjustment
GIFR Greenland–Iceland–Faroe Ridge
GIR Greenland–Iceland Ridge
GL Grimsey Line
GPS Global Positioning System
H
HFF Húsavík-Flatey Fault
HIMU High Mu mantle (Mu = U/Pb)
List of Abbreviations xi
I
ICPMS Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
IFR Iceland–Faroe Ridge
IGS International GPS Service
IMO Icelandic Meteorological Office (Veðurstofa Íslands)
InSAR Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
IRD Ice-rafted detritus
ISOW Iceland–Scotland Overflow Water
ÍSNET GPS Network surveys of the National Land Survey of Iceland
(Landmælingar Íslands)
J
JMFZ Jan Mayen Fracture Zone
K
KR Kolbeinsey Ridge
L
LBA Labrador–Baffin axis
LGM Last Glacial Maximum (extension)
LIP Large igneous provinces
M
M or M Moment magnitude
W
MAR Mid-Atlantic Ridge