Some properties of basalt lava sequences and volcanic centres in a plate-boundary environment

This paper discusses the implications that two current studies in Iceland may have in the interpretation of results from marine deep drilling and geophysical surveys in marginal volcanic areas of the N Atlantic. One study, concerning the magnetic remanence of lava flows, shows that the rate of geomagnetic reversals in the Tertiary is higher than is generally expected, and that caution must be exercised in tracing magnetic lineations between coeval submarine and subaerial formations. The other study, which deals with the distribution of major volcanic complexes within the Icelandic lava pile, demonstrates that this distribution is dependent upon various tectonic factors, especially any lateral shifts or direction changes of the active plate boundary that may have occurred.