This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Iberian–Iceland–Azores mantle domain | |
|---|---|
| Name | Iberian–Iceland–Azores mantle domain |
| Type | Mantle domain |
| Region | North Atlantic |
| Period | Cenozoic |
| Primary composition | Peridotite, OIB basalts |
| Notable features | Mantle plume influences, enriched isotopic signatures |
Iberian–Iceland–Azores mantle domain
The Iberian–Iceland–Azores mantle domain is a proposed large-scale mantle province beneath the northeastern North Atlantic that links mantle source regions beneath Iberian Peninsula, Iceland, and the Azores with coherent geochemical, isotopic, and geophysical signatures, and has been discussed in the context of mantle plume hypotheses, plate reconstructions, and hotspot volcanism; key proponents and critics include researchers affiliated with University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and debates intersect work by scholars publishing in journals such as Nature, Science, and Geophysical Journal International.
The domain spans lithospheric and asthenospheric regions beneath the Iberian Peninsula, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland, the Azores Triple Junction, and adjacent segments near Greenland and the European Plate boundary, interacting with structures mapped by teams at British Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey, and Centro de Geofísica da Universidade de Lisboa, and is framed by plate reconstructions informed by data from Paleogene and Neogene stratigraphy, magnetic anomalies catalogued by researchers at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, and seismic profiles acquired during expeditions organized by International Ocean Discovery Program.
Basalts and mantle xenoliths attributed to this domain display enriched incompatible element patterns and radiogenic isotope ratios (notably Sr, Nd, Pb, Hf, and He) that have been compared to signatures documented for ocean island basalts, mid-ocean ridge basalts, and enriched mantle end-members described in studies from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, ETH Zurich, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with correlated anomalies such as elevated 3He/4He measured by teams at University of Hawaii and trace-element ratios analyzed using mass spectrometers developed at California Institute of Technology.
Seismic tomography models produced by consortia including USArray, EuroSeisNet, and researchers at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel reveal slow-velocity anomalies beneath Iceland and beneath the Azores, while shear-wave splitting, surface-wave dispersion, and gravity anomalies analyzed by groups at National Oceanography Centre (UK), Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, and Norwegian Seismic Array have been interpreted to reflect mantle upwelling, small-scale convection, and chemical heterogeneity linked to the domain, and geodynamic modeling from Princeton University and ETH Zurich explores plume conduit morphology, lithosphere–asthenosphere interaction, and mantle flow pathways.
Cenozoic volcanism across Galicia (Spain), the Iberian Massif, Azores Islands, Icelandic volcanic zones, and seamount chains in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean has been attributed to the temporal and spatial expression of the domain, with eruptions recorded in the geological time scale by specialists at Instituto Geológico y Minero de España and correlation to plate motions reconstructed using paleomagnetic studies from University of Barcelona and stratigraphic syntheses in publications from Royal Society Publishing and Geological Society of America.
The domain is contrasted and compared with neighboring mantle provinces including the Iceland plume, the proposed Azores plume, depleted upper mantle beneath West Africa, and chemical provinces beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Greenland, with comparative datasets drawn from work by Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Université de Lorraine, and international collaborations under the aegis of International Lithosphere Programme and World Wide Fund for Nature-partnered research initiatives.
The concept emerged from integrated geochemical, isotopic, and geophysical syntheses published by investigators at University of Lisbon, University of Iceland, University of Granada, and University of Bergen, provoking debate involving alternative interpretations advanced by scholars at University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and University of California, Berkeley over whether observed signatures require a single coherent domain, multiple interacting plumes, or lithospheric metasomatism; major conferences where these debates featured include meetings of the American Geophysical Union, European Geosciences Union, and specialized symposia organized by International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior.
Category:Mantle plume theory Category:Geology of the North Atlantic