Iceland and the North Atlantic: A review

Abstract

Iceland is a special volcanic island in an anomalous ocean basin. A review of the unusual features shows that among others topography and gravity are broadly positive, spreading has been and still is complex, seismicity is slightly diffuse and the chemistry of the basalts is different from that at normal ridges. In summary we observe a tendency of lithospheric dispersal and spreading in the North Atlantic and its surroundings. These observations together with what is known about Icelandic crust, heat flow, tectonic history, etc., point to a hot mantle upwelling beneath Iceland. The shape of the upwelling currents is not known. Although at present much speculation is possible, the author prefers to think of a broad rising region uplifting the lithospheric plates such that they tend to slide away from Iceland more forcefully than is the case from normal spreading ridges.