Kinematic model of the South Icelandic tectonic system

Abstract

Due to the hot spot-ridge interaction the tectonical situation in the southern part of Iceland is quite complex. Within this investigation it is shown that the Western Volcanic Zone is, in spite of missing recent volcanic activity, still an active spreading zone. Its annual widening of 8.1 ± 1.0 mm yr-1 represents more than 45 per cent of the spreading of the southern part of Iceland. The full spreading rate of the investigated region amounted to 17.1 ± 3.0 mm yr-1. These are the results of a constrained linear multiepoch deformation analysis of six GPS measurement campaigns, which have been carried out between 1986 and 1999 in the southwest of Iceland. The presented solution combines the motion information of 79 stations to yield a linear velocity field, which is a snapshot of the medium-term motion. The used GPS measurement campaigns had changing network geometries with a lack of point identities. © 2005 The Authors Journal compilation © 2005 RAS.