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Widespread volcanism in the Greenland–North Atlantic region explained by the Iceland plume

Nature Geoscience volume 12, pages 61–68 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

In the classical concept, a hotspot track is a line of volcanics formed as a plate moves over a stationary mantle plume. Defying this concept, intraplate volcanism in Greenland and the North Atlantic region occurred simultaneously over a wide area, particularly around 60 million years ago, showing no resemblance to a hotspot track. Here, we show that most of this volcanism can nonetheless be explained solely by the Iceland plume interacting with seafloor spreading ridges, global mantle flow and a lithosphere (the outermost rigid layer of the Earth) with strongly variable thickness. An east–west corridor of thinned lithosphere across central Greenland, as inferred from new, highly resolved tomographic images, could have formed as Greenland moved westward over the Iceland plume between 90 and 60 million years ago. Our numerical geodynamic model demonstrates how plume material may have accumulated in this corridor and in areas east and west of Greenland. Simultaneous plume-related volcanic activities starting about 62 million years ago on either side of Greenland could occur where and when the lithosphere was thin enough due to continental rifting and seafloor spreading, possibly long after the plume reached the base of the lithosphere.

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Fig. 1: Main volcanic facies linked to the North Atlantic Igneous Province, Iceland and North Atlantic opening.
Fig. 2: Lithosphere thickness at 60 Ma and present day.
Fig. 3: Arctic tomography model AMISvArc32 beneath Greenland and its surroundings.
Fig. 4: Numerical model (Model115Ma) of the Iceland plume, represented by the 100 K isosurface coloured according to melt fraction.
Fig. 5: Computed excess crustal thickness and crustal thickness based on gravity inversion.
Fig. 6: Computed plume-related melt produced in different time intervals, represented as present-day crustal thickness contribution (as in Fig. 5).

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All of the input files that are required to reproduce this study are available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The geodynamic models were computed with the open-source software ASPECT (http://aspect.dealii.org) and performed with resources provided by the North-German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN). The authors thank J. Dannberg, S. Williams, N. White and I. Bjarnason for comments and suggestions. This publication has emanated from research supported in part by research grants from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under grant nos. 13/CDA/2192 and 13/RC/2092, co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund and by iCRAG industry partners. B.S. and T.H.T. also acknowledge support from the Research Council of Norway, through its Centre of Excellence scheme, project no. 223272 (CEED).

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Author notes

  1. Eva Bredow

    Present address: Institute of Geosciences, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section 2.5 Geodynamic Modelling, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany

    Bernhard Steinberger, Eva Bredow & Trond H. Torsvik

  2. Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Bernhard Steinberger & Trond H. Torsvik

  3. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Cosmic Physics, Geophysics Section, Dublin, Ireland

    Sergei Lebedev & Andrew Schaeffer

  4. Pacific Geoscience Centre, Geological Survey of Canada, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada

    Andrew Schaeffer

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Andrew Schaeffer

  6. Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), Trondheim, Norway

    Trond H. Torsvik

  7. School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South Africa

    Trond H. Torsvik

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  1. Bernhard Steinberger
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Contributions

S.L. and B.S. conceived the paper. B.S. wrote the paper, with help from all other authors. E.B. performed the computations with ASPECT. A.S. and S.L. provided tomography and lithosphere thickness models. T.H.T. provided plate reconstructions and data on the distribution of volcanics. All authors jointly contributed to discussions.

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Correspondence to Bernhard Steinberger.

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Steinberger, B., Bredow, E., Lebedev, S. et al. Widespread volcanism in the Greenland–North Atlantic region explained by the Iceland plume. Nature Geosci 12, 61–68 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0251-0

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