Project Details
Projekt
Nature of the Iceland Plateau and northeastern Iceland shelf, Northeast Atlantic
Subject Area
Geophysics
Term
since 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 564747023
With this marine geophysical survey, we aim to reveal the distribution of oceanic versus continental crust between the Jan Mayen Microplate Complex and the Faroe continental plateau. Major open question is the fate and amount of continental material now dispersed in the Northeast Atlantic as a consequence of the rift migration from the Aegir Ridge to the Kolbeinsey Ridge. Currently, competing hypotheses denote the crustal composition of the Iceland Plateau as (i) thickened oceanic (mafic) crust, (ii) stretched continental crust and possibly exhumed mantle or (iii) oceanic rift migration by rift jumps with embedded continental fragments. We propose (i) a multi-channel seismic reflection grid over the Iceland Plateau to identify deformation phases, structures and tectonic domains, (ii) two seismic refraction profiles over the Iceland Plateau and the Iceland shelf to determine the crustal composition, and (iii) a high resolution magnetic mapping of the southern termination of the extinct Aegir mid-oceanic ridge to test the presence of a possible transform fault at the southern boundary of the Norway Basin. The combination of seismic reflection and refraction, both optimized to low frequencies to acquire data below basalts and to allow full waveform inversion of the data, magnetics and gravity shall enable us to get a significantly enhanced understanding of the complex opening processes of the central Northeast Atlantic.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 2520:
Infrastructure area - Research Vessels
International Connection
Iceland
Co-Investigator
Dr. Dieter Franke
Cooperation Partner
Dr. Anett Blischke
