Mechanical interaction between active volcanoes in Iceland

Abstract

We test the possibility of mechanical interaction between eight central volcanoes in the central part of the active Iceland rift zone. The average distance between the volcanoes is 30 km; all are thought to have shallow magma chambers, and many contain collapse calderas. We analyzed many finite‐element models with the volcanoes subject to a tensile stress of 5 MPa (equal to the maximum in situ tensile strength of the crust) in a direction parallel to the spreading vector, N105°E. The results show zones between many nearby volcanoes where the tensile stresses exceed the in situ tensile strength of the crust. The results indicate that mechanical interaction between volcanoes in a pair, such as simultaneous dike emplacement, seismogenic faulting, and deformation, may be common in this part of Iceland, in agreement with observations.