Seismic tomography shows that upwelling beneath Iceland is confined to the upper mantle

• Published in: Geophysical Journal International
• Main Authors: Foulger, G. R., Pritchard, M. J., Julian, B. R., Evans, J. R., Allen, R. M., Nolet, G., Morgan, W. J., Bergsson, B. H., Erlendsson, P., Jakobsdottir, S., Ragnarsson, S., Stefansson, R., Vogfjörd, K.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2001
• Subjects: Articles; Reykjanes; Iceland
• Online Access: http://gji.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/146/2/504; https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0956-540x.2001.01470.x

We report the results of the highest-resolution teleseismic tomography study yet performed of the upper mantle beneath Iceland. The experiment used data gathered by the Iceland Hotspot Project, which operated a 35-station network of continuously recording, digital, broad-band seismometers over all of Iceland 1996–1998. The structure of the upper mantle was determined using the ACH damped least-squares method and involved 42 stations, 3159 P -wave, and 1338 S -wave arrival times, including the phases P , pP , sP , PP , SP , PcP , PKIKP , pPKIKP , S , sS , SS , SKS and Sdiff . Artefacts, both perceptual and parametric, were minimized by well-tested smoothing techniques involving layer thinning and offset-and-averaging. Resolution is good beneath most of Iceland from ∼60 km depth to a maximum of ∼450 km depth and beneath the Tjornes Fracture Zone and near-shore parts of the Reykjanes ridge. The results reveal a coherent, negative wave-speed anomaly with a diameter of 200–250 km and anomalies in P -wave speed, V P , as strong as −2.7 per cent and in S -wave speed, V S , as strong as −4.9 per cent. The anomaly extends from the surface to the limit of good resolution at ∼450 km depth. In the upper ∼250 km it is centred beneath the eastern part of the Middle Volcanic Zone, coincident with the centre of the ∼100 mGal Bouguer gravity low over Iceland, and a lower crustal low-velocity zone identified by receiver functions. This is probably the true centre of the Iceland hotspot. In the upper ∼200 km, the low-wave-speed body extends along the Reykjanes ridge but is sharply truncated beneath the Tjornes Fracture Zone. This suggests that material may flow unimpeded along the Reykjanes ridge from beneath Iceland but is blocked beneath the Tjornes Fracture Zone. The magnitudes of the V P , V S and V P / V S anomalies cannot be explained by elevated temperature alone, but favour a model of maximum temperature anomalies < 200 K, along with up to ∼2 per cent of partial melt in the depth range ∼100–300 km beneath east-central ...