Iceland hotspot

Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, with eruptions occurring on average roughly every three years (in the 20th and 21st century until 2010 there were 45 volcanic eruptions on and around Iceland). About a third of the basaltic lavas erupted in recorded history have been produced by Icelandic eruptions. Notable eruptions have included that of Eldgjá, a fissure of Katla, in 934 (the world's largest basaltic eruption ever witnessed), Laki in 1783 (the world's second largest), and several eruptions beneath ice caps, which have generated devastating glacial bursts, most recently in 2010 after the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.

Iceland's location astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the Eurasian and North American Plates are moving apart, is partly responsible for this intense volcanic activity, but an additional cause is necessary to explain why Iceland is a substantial island while the rest of the ridge mostly consists of seamounts, with peaks below sea level.

As well as being a region of higher temperature than the surrounding mantle, the hotspot is believed to have a higher concentration of water. The presence of water in magma reduces the melting temperature, which may also play a role in enhancing Icelandic volcanism.

Theories of causation

There is an ongoing discussion about whether the hotspot is caused by a deep mantle plume or originates at a much shallower depth. Recently, seismic tomography studies have found seismic wave speed anomalies under Iceland, consistent with a hot conduit 100 km (62 mi) across that extends to the lower mantle.

Foulger et al. believe the Icelandic plume reaches only to the mantle transition layer and can therefore not come from the same source as Hawaii. Bijwaard and Spakman, however, believe the Icelandic plume does reach to the mantle, and therefore comes from the same source as Hawaii.

Mantle plume theory

The Iceland plume is a postulated upwelling of anomalously hot rock in the Earth's mantle beneath Iceland. Its origin is thought to lie deep in the mantle, perhaps at the core–mantle boundary at about 2,880 km (1,790 mi) depth. Opinions differ as to whether seismic studies have imaged such a structure. In this framework, the volcanism of Iceland is attributed to this plume, according to the theory of W. Jason Morgan.

It is believed that a mantle plume underlies Iceland, of which the hotspot is thought to be the surface expression, and that the presence of the plume enhances the volcanism already caused by plate separation. Additionally, flood basalts on the continental margins of Greenland and Norway, the oblique orientation of the Reykjanes Ridge segments to their spreading direction, and the enhanced igneous crustal thickness found along the southern Aegir and Kolbeinsey ridges may be results of interaction between the plume and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The plume stem is believed to be quite narrow, perhaps 100 km (62 mi) across and extending down to at least 400–650 km (250–400 mi) beneath the Earth's surface, and possibly down to the core-mantle boundary, while the plume head may be greater than 1,000 km (620 mi) in diameter.

While the Hawaiian island chain and the Emperor Seamounts show a clear time-progressive volcanic track caused by the movement of the Pacific Plate over the Hawaiian hotspot, no such clear track can be seen at Iceland. It is proposed that the line from Grímsvötn volcano to Surtsey shows the movement of the Eurasian Plate, and the line from Grímsvötn volcano to the Reykjanes volcanic belt shows the movement of the North American Plate. It has been suggested that the lack of a time-progressive track of seamounts may be due to the location of the plume beneath the thick Greenland craton (Laurentia) for ~ 15 Myr after continental breakup, and the later entrenchment of the plume material into the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge following its formation.

Geological history

According to the plume model, the source of Icelandic volcanism lies deep beneath the center of the island. The earliest volcanic rocks attributed to the plume are found on both sides of the Atlantic. Their ages have been determined to lie between 64 and 58 million years. This coincides with the opening of the north Atlantic in the late Paleocene and early Eocene, which has led to suggestions that the arrival of the plume was linked to, and has perhaps contributed to, the breakup of Laurasia. In the framework of the plume hypothesis, the volcanism was caused by the flow of hot plume material initially beneath thick continental lithosphere and then beneath the lithosphere of the growing ocean basin as rifting proceeded. The exact position of the plume at that time is a matter of disagreement between scientists, as is whether the plume is thought to have ascended from the deep mantle only at that time or whether it is much older and also responsible for the old volcanism in northern Greenland, on Ellesmere Island, and at Alpha Ridge in the Arctic.

As the northern Atlantic opened to the east of Greenland during the Eocene, North America and Eurasia drifted apart; the Mid-Atlantic Ridge formed as an oceanic spreading center and a part of the submarine volcanic system of mid-oceanic ridges. The initial plume head may have been several thousand kilometers in diameter, and it erupted volcanic rocks on both sides of the present ocean basin to produce the North Atlantic Igneous Province. Upon further opening of the ocean and plate drift, the plume and the mid-Atlantic Ridge are postulated to have approached one another, and finally met. The excess magmatism that accompanied the transition from flood volcanism on Greenland, Ireland and Norway to present-day Icelandic activity was the result of ascent of the hot mantle source beneath progressively thinning lithosphere, according to the plume model, or a postulated unusually productive part of the mid-ocean ridge system. Some geologists have suggested that the Iceland plume could have been responsible for the Paleogene uplift of the Scandinavian Mountains by producing changes in the density of the lithosphere and asthenosphere during the opening of the North Atlantic. To the south the Paleogene uplift of the English chalklands that resulted in the formation of the Sub-Paleogene surface has also been attributed to the Iceland plume.

An extinct ridge exists in western Iceland, leading to the theory that the plume has shifted east with time. The oldest crust of Iceland is more than 20 million years old and was formed at an old oceanic spreading center in the Westfjords (Vestfirðir) region. The westward movement of the plates and the ridge above the plume and the strong thermal anomaly of the latter caused this old spreading center to cease 15 million years ago and lead to the formation of a new one in the area of today's peninsulas Skagi and Snæfellsnes; in the latter there is still some activity in the form of the Snæfellsjökull volcano. The spreading center, and hence the main activity, shifted eastward again 9 to 7 million years ago and formed the current volcanic zones in the south–west (Reykjanes, Hofsjökull) and north–east (Tjörnes). Presently, a slow decrease of the activity in the north–east takes place, while the volcanic zone in the south–east (Katla, Vatnajökull), which was initiated 3 million years ago, develops. The reorganisation of the plate boundaries in Iceland has also been attributed to microplate tectonics, and an independent Hreppar microplate exists.

Challenges to the plume model

The weak visibility of the postulated plume in tomographic images of the lower mantle and the geochemical evidence for eclogite in the mantle source have led to the theory that Iceland is not underlain by a mantle plume at all, but that the volcanism there results from processes related to plate tectonics and is restricted to the upper mantle.

Subducted ocean plate

According to one of those models, a large chunk of the subducted plate of a former ocean has survived in the uppermost mantle for several hundred million years, and its oceanic crust now causes excessive melt generation and the observed volcanism. This model, however, is not backed by dynamical calculations, nor is it exclusively required by the data, and it also leaves unanswered questions concerning the dynamical and chemical stability of such a body over that long period or the thermal effect of such massive melting.

Upper mantle convection

Another model proposes that the upwelling in the Iceland region is driven by lateral temperature gradients between the suboceanic mantle and the neighbouring Greenland craton and therefore also restricted to the upper 200–300 km (120–190 mi) of the mantle. This convection mechanism is probably not strong enough under the conditions prevailing in the north Atlantic, with respect to the spreading rate, and it does not offer a simple explanation for the observed geoid anomaly.