Vertical Motions at the Fringes of the Icelandic Plume ...

• Main Author: Schoonman, Charlotte Maria
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2017
• Subjects: geophysics; seismology; geodynamics; mantle plumes; Iceland; British Isles; dynamic topography; receiver functions; Scandinavia; viscous fingering; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.13879; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/267950

The Icelandic mantle plume has had a profound influence on the development of the North Atlantic region over its 64 Myr existence. Long-wavelength free-air gravity anomalies and full waveform tomographic studies suggest that the planform of the plume is highly irregular, with up to five fingers of hot asthenosphere radiating away from Iceland beneath the lithospheric plates. Two of these fingers extend beneath the British Isles and southern Scandinavia, where departures from crustal isostatic equilibrium and anomalous uplift have been identified. In this study, the spatial extent of present-day dynamic support associated with the Icelandic plume is investigated using receiver function analysis. Teleseismic events recorded at nine temporary and 59 permanent broadband, three-component seismometer stations are used to calculate 3864 P-to-S crustal receiver functions. The amplitude and arrival time of particular converted phases are assessed, and H-$\textit{k}$ stacking is applied to estimate bulk crustal ...