Lithology and structure of the volcanic sequence in eastern Iceland

Abstract

The Reydarfjordur drill hole penetrated 1919 m of section with a recovery of 99.7%. Subaerial lava flows comprise 54% of the core, dikes 41%, and clastic rocks about 5%. In addition, a 1.3‐km‐thick section of lava flows and clastic rocks exposed above the drill site was measured and sampled. The lava flows are chiefly low‐magnesia basalts and ferrobasalts with lesser amounts of icelandite, basaltic andesite, and olivine tholeiite. In the drill core, complete flows range from 1.2 to 19.7 m in vertical thickness and average 7.1 m; in the exposed section, flow thicknesses range from 1 to 30 m and average 5.2 m. Most of the flows are characterized by an upper scoriaceous zone 1–3 meters thick, grading downward through a zone of fractured basalt into a massive flow interior. Some flows also have a thin basal breccia. Olivine tholeiites and some low‐magnesia basalts are commonly mottled, whereas ferrobasalts and icelandites have well developed flow banding. Most of the flows are fine‐ to medium‐grained, aphyric to sparsely phyric, and moderately vesicular. A few are moderately plagioclase phyric; others have scattered phenocrysts of clinopyroxene and olivine. Over 100 intrusive units are recognized in the core, and they span approximately the same compositional range as the flows. They are characterized by having steeply inclined chilled contacts, a uniform massive aspect, and an absence of vesicles or brecciation. Most are less altered than the intruded lava flows and contain secondary minerals only along sparse high angle fractures. Many of the dikes are also aphyric, but some contain notable plagioclase or olivine phenocrysts. Groundmass textures range from fine‐grained, intersertal to coarse‐grained, ophitic. Clastic units occur typically as thin, varicolored layers between lava flows, rarely exceeding 0.5 m in thickness. These are chiefly fine‐ to coarse‐grained, poorly‐ to well‐bedded lithic tuffs showing varying degrees of reworking. Most are silicic to intermediate in composition, but basaltic units are also present. Two rhyolitic ash flow tuffs occur in the section, one of which is 30 m thick. We interpret the lavas to be the flanking portions of broad low‐angled central volcanoes centered on silicic complexes. Some of the flows may have erupted from central vents but most probably represent flank eruptions from rift zones represented by the dike swarms. Most of the dikes were probably intruded laterally into the lava pile; thus they do not represent direct vertical feeders from deep magma bodies.