Description
The model has an extent of 320 x 240 m and is located north of the 1984 eruptive site, within the Krafla Fissure Swarm in the Northern Volcanic Zone of Iceland. The central part of the area is marked by the presence of a major lava flow, erupted during the 1984 Krafla Fires (Saemundsson et al., 2012). During the final stage of the eruption, the thickness of the lava decreased as a consequence of the emptying of the lava channel. The sides of the channel started to collapse toward the flow, due to unbuttressing. The consequence was the development of the series of open fissures that run along both sides of the lava channel.
On one side of the channel, four aligned Holocene monogenic cones can be spotted, belonging to an about N-S trending eruptive fissure. One of the edifices is so elongated that it resembles a scoria rampart. All are filled or bounded by the recentmost lava flow, and this suggests they are older than the collapsed lava flow deposit. The trend of eruptive fissue is almost orthogonal to the spreading direction that, in Northern Iceland, is about N106° (Hjartardóttir et al., 2016).
Credits: UAV-base survey and 3D DOM by Fabio Marchese and Fabio L. Bonali; funding is from MIUR project ACPR15T4_00098 (http://argo3d.unimib.it/). Model description by Alessandro Tibaldi and Federico Pasquaré Mariotto.
References
- Hjartardóttir, R., Einarsson, P., Magnusdóttir, S., Bjornsdóttir, Þ. and Brandsdóttir, B. (2016) Fracture systems of the Northern Volcanic Rift Zone, Iceland: an onshore part of the Mid-Atlantic plate boundary. In: Wright, T. J., Ayele, A., Ferguson, D. J., Kidane, T., Vye-Brown, C. (eds), Magmatic Rifting and Active Volcanism. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 420, 297-314.
- Saemundsson, K., Hjartarson, A., Kaldal, I., Sigurgeirsson, M.A., Kristinsson, S.G. and Vikingsson, S. (2012) Geological map of the Northern Volcanic Zone, Iceland. Northern Part 1: 100.000. Reykjavik: Iceland GeoSurvey and Landsvirkjun.