An international team, including researchers at the University of Liverpool, have shown that south east Iceland is underlain by continental crust.
The team found that the accepted theory, that Iceland consists only of very thick oceanic crust, is incorrect. Maps of crustal thickness produced from satellite gravity data, together with geochemical, plate tectonic reconstruction and mantle plume track analysis (an upwelling of abnormally hot rock), were used to show that south east Iceland is underlain by continental crust which extends offshore to the east.
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