Publication Date:
2014-02-13
Description:
Rifting occurs as episodes of active deformation in individual rift segments of the Northern Volcanic Zone (NVZ) in Iceland. Here, we simulate deformation around the Krafla central volcano and rift system in the NVZ using a 3-D numerical model in order to explain synthetic aperture radar data acquired by the ERS and Envisat satellite missions between 1993 and 2008. The deformation is non-linear in time over the observed interval. The observed deformation can be explained by a combination of three processes, including: (i) secular plate spreading between the North American and Eurasian plates at a rate of 18.2 mm yr –1 , (ii) viscoelastic relaxation following the Krafla Fires rifting episode between 1975 and 1984 and (iii) inflation/deflation of shallow magma chambers beneath the Theistareykir and Krafla central volcanoes. We minimize the misfit between the observed and modelled values of the range change gradient, averaged over all samples, using a simulated annealing algorithm that uses a first-order Taylor series to approximate the fitting function. The calibration parameters include the locking depth of the plate boundary and the rheological properties of the lower crust and mantle. The 68-per cent confidence intervals for the parameters in the solution that best fits the data are: (i) a locking depth of 8.0 to 9.5 km, (ii) a viscosity of 19 to 49 EPa.s (1 EPa.s =10 18 Pa.s) in the lower crust at depths between 8 and 24 km and (iii) a viscosity of 5 to 9 EPa.s in the upper mantle below 24 km.
Print ISSN:
0956-540X
Electronic ISSN:
1365-246X
Topics:
Geosciences
Published by
Oxford University Press
on behalf of
The Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG) and the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
