Lower-crustal earthquakes caused by magma movement beneath Askja volcano on the north Iceland rift

The lower crust of magmatically active rifts is usually too hot and ductile to allow seismicity. The Icelandic mid-Atlantic rift is characterized by high heat flow, abundant magmatism generating up to 25–30 km thick crust, and seismicity within the upper 8 km of the crust. In a 20-seismometer survey...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of volcanology 2010-01, Vol.72 (1), p.55-62
Main Authors: Soosalu, Heidi, Key, Janet, White, Robert S., Knox, Clare, Einarsson, Páll, Jakobsdóttir, Steinunn S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crystalline rocks
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Earthquakes
Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics
Exact sciences and technology
Geology
Geophysics
Geophysics/Geodesy
Igneous and metamorphic rocks petrology, volcanic processes, magmas
Magma
Mineralogy
Natural hazards: prediction, damages, etc
Plate tectonics
Research Article
Sedimentology
Seismology
Volcanoes
Volcanology
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Summary:The lower crust of magmatically active rifts is usually too hot and ductile to allow seismicity. The Icelandic mid-Atlantic rift is characterized by high heat flow, abundant magmatism generating up to 25–30 km thick crust, and seismicity within the upper 8 km of the crust. In a 20-seismometer survey in July-August 2006 within the northern rift zone around the Askja volcano we recorded ~1700 upper-crustal earthquakes cutting off at 7–8 km depth, marking the brittle-ductile boundary. Unexpectedly, we discovered 100 small-magnitude (M L
ISSN:0258-8900
1432-0819
DOI:10.1007/s00445-009-0297-3