Scientists have unveiled a new insight into the origins of the North Atlantic’s volcanic hotspot: it all comes down to the lithosphere being extra thin.
By combining gravity data from ESA’s GOCE satellite, seismic and other terrestrial datasets, and thermodynamic inversion methods, researchers have found that ancient upwellings from the Iceland Plume funneled into these weak zones, triggering eruptions and uplift, most notably at sites like Northern Ireland’s famed Giant’s Causeway.
These findings also connect to current seismicity across Britain and Ireland, which appears concentrated in regions of thin lithosphere, and along areas with sharp lithospheric thickness contrasts.
Presented at the Living Planet Symposium, the study is the outcome of the 4D Dynamic Earth project.
Read more in the full ESA EO story.