Enlargement of the active rift during glaciations

Olivier Dauteuil (1) , Olivier Bourgeois (2) , Brigitte van Vliet-Lanoë (3)

1 GR - Géosciences Rennes
2 LPGN - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes [UMR 6112]
3 LDO - Domaines Océaniques

During the last glaciation, an ice sheet covered Iceland approximately 1000 m thick. A reconstruction of the ice flow lines shows that the ice sheet was partly drained through fast-flowing streams. The major drainage routes correlate with locations of geothermal anomalies, suggesting that ice stream activity was favoured by water produced in regions of high geothermal heat flux. A widening of active rift zone was also deduced revealing a coupling between deep and surface processes.

Domaines: Glaciologie; Tectonique; Milieux et Changements globaux

Olivier Dauteuil, Olivier Bourgeois, Brigitte van Vliet-Lanoë. Enlargement of the active rift during glaciations. Iceland in the Central Northern Atlantic : hotspot, sea currents and climate change, May 2010, Plouzané, France. ⟨hal-00480686⟩