Plume-Ridge Interaction to the North of the Iceland Plume: Kolbeinsey Ridge Iceland Seismic Experiment (KRISE)

Carnegie Institution Of Washington, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This is a cooperative project among US, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Japanese scientists. The purpose of the project is to constrain crustal thickness variations to the north of Iceland, along the Kolbeinsey Ridge. Crustal thickness will be measured along two seismic refraction profiles - one along 215 km of the southern Kolbeinsey Ridge from the Tjornes fracture zone northward to the 68 degree offset, and another cross-axis profile extending east from the northern end of the along-axis profile to 10 Ma-old crust. These two profiles will allow the determination of the distance dependence of melt flux at the ridge in the critical range of 200-400 km from the plume center, the asymmetry of the plume influence on the spreading centers to the north and south, and the temporal variability of the plume influence on the ridge over the past 10 Ma.