Magnetic surveys south and southeast of Iceland

Abstract

Aeromagnetic surveys were carried out in 1990–1992 over parts of the insular shelf south and southeast of Iceland, to extend the coverage provided by a 1973 marine survey. Prominent magnetic anomalies associated with the shelf edge over a distance of some 400 km, are interpreted in terms of a continuous basement edge in this region. This edge lies several kilometres landward of the shelf edge as defined from bathymetry, indicating the presence of a sediment lens of the order of 1 km in thickness. The formations making up the shelf seem to form thicker polarity zones and have a higher intensity of remanence than Neogene basalt lava flows and dikes in Iceland, but their age is unknown. Other geophysical information from the shelf area is too limited to constrain modelling of the anomaly sources.