The South Iceland Seismic Zone is aligned E-W across the Southern Lowlands. The earthquake faults have N-S direction. So why is that? It can be easily explained according to the framework of mantle convection cells between the edge of the Western Volcanic Zone on one hand and the edge of the Eastern Volcanic Zone on the other. This leads to the fact you can almost use the system of faults as a compass! As convection takes place 120 km below the surface, the regularity found within the top 10 km of brittle crust is just amazing. The South Iceland Seismic Zone is one of the clearest manifestations of the mantle current system within the Earth.
South Iceland Seismic Zone Mystery
Published by Steingrimur Thorbjarnarson
I am a geologist, graduated from the University of Iceland, and taught geology for a few years. I have gained some knowledge about Earth's inner structure, so I provide this website as my contribution to answer one of the greatest questions remaining within the realm of geoscience. Experiments show that the mantle should form convection rolls when close to the melting point. I took this literally, and calculated the dimensions and shape of these mantle convection rolls. Then I compare that model with the surface. This makes it possible to provide many interesting examples about geology found on my blog. View all posts by Steingrimur Thorbjarnarson
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