Pilot Study of the Tjornes Fracture Zone on Northern Iceland's Insular Margin Using High-Resolution, Multibeam Bathymetry, Seismic Reflection and Side-Scan Sonar

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

The project is a pilot study of the Tjornes fracture zone offshore northern Iceland with the goal of demonstrating the feasibility of mapping Holocene faulting and volcanic activity in the tectonically complex fracture zone system. The project will use a SUBSCAN chirp sonar system and a high-resolution multicchannel seismic acquisition system, together with conventional bathymetric mapping. Specific objectives are to determine the current location and history of strike-slip movement along the offshore portion of the fracture system, to estimate the amount of extension of the Eyjafjardarall graben over the past 1-2 Ma, and to examine how the north-south graben structures terminate near the fracture zone. If successful, a joint Iceland-US investigation of the Tjornes fracture zone and other portions of Iceland's insular shelf are planned. The overaching goal of this research is to define strain partitioning in the Tjornes fracture zone in order to reconstruct the onshore-offshore deformation history of the region.