Iceland Plateau

The Iceland Plateau or Icelandic Plateau is an oceanic plateau in the North Atlantic Ocean consisting of Iceland and its contiguous shelf and marginal slopes. It resides on an active rift zone of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from which extensive tholeiitic plateau basalts and a number of large rhyolitic domes have been extruded.[1]

Topographic map of Iceland and the Atlantic Ocean. The Iceland Plateau is shown as an oval area encircling Iceland.

The Iceland Plateau is bounded on the south by the Reykjanes Ridge, on the west by the Greenland-Iceland Ridge, on the north by the Kolbeinsey Ridge and on the east by the Iceland-Faeroe Ridge.[2] It consists of a large igneous province that has been volcanically active since at least the Miocene epoch.[1][2] The plateau is an example of ridge-hotspot interaction.[1]

References

Bott, Martin H. P.; Saxov, Svend; Talwani, Manik; Thiede, Jörn (1983). Structure and Development of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge: New Methods and Concepts. Springer Science+Business Media. p. 464. ISBN 978-1-4613-3487-3.
Foulger, Gillian R.; Jurdy, Donna M. (2007). Plates, Plumes, and Plantary Processes. Geological Society of America. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-8137-2430-0.

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[SJ-1] Bott, Martin H. P.; Saxov, Svend; Talwani, Manik; Thiede, Jörn (1983). Structure and Development of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge: New Methods and Concepts. Springer Science+Business Media. p. 464. ISBN 978-1-4613-3487-3.

[HF-2] Foulger, Gillian R.; Jurdy, Donna M. (2007). Plates, Plumes, and Plantary Processes. Geological Society of America. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-8137-2430-0.