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Summary: Reviewed research article
Crustal deformation in Iceland: Plate spreading and earthquake
deformation
Thóra Árnadóttir 1
, Halldór Geirsson2
and Weiping Jiang1,3
1
Nordic Volcanological Center, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, IS-101 Reykjavík, Iceland
2
Physics Department, Icelandic Meteorological Office, Reykjavík, Iceland
3
GPS Research Center, Wuhan University 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China;
thora1@hi.is, dori@vedur.is, wpjiang@whu.edu.cn
Abstract -- Iceland is located on the Mid-Atlantic ridge, at a divergent plate boundary separating the North
America and the Eurasia plates. It is therefore one of the few places on Earth where active plate spreading
can be observed on land. Numerous GPS studies have been conducted in Iceland, starting in 1986 and a
local network of continuous GPS stations (ISGPS), initiated in 1999, is rapidly expanding. In general, the
relative horizontal velocities observed with GPS agree well with predictions from plate motion models, such as
NUVEL-1A and REVEL. The plate spreading across Iceland is accommodated by extension across the Northern
and Eastern Volcanic Zones, with shear across the Tjörnes Fracture Zone, the South Iceland Seismic Zone and
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