The large multidisciplinary geophysical observational networks in Iceland

A high quality geophysical observational network exists and is currently being built up in Iceland. It is for the most part organized for the purpose of mitigating risks caused by seismic and volcanic hazards, and focusses on populated areas (Figure 2).

  

Figure 2: The locations and types of the geophysical monitoring stations in Iceland, which HOTSPOT will make available to European research. The site marked HOTSPOT station is the station VON which is planned to be a test site for designing the unmanned European HOTSPOT station in the harsch conditions near the center of the active Hotspot.

Although this network is aimed for alerts and for risk mitigation research it already provides other information significant for studying the Hotspot dynamics. The aim of HOTSPOT is to support this operative network to better serve these objectives. Especially the aim is to prepare the data and to make them more easily accessible for the international scientific community. We also aim to prepare the infrastructure, both the observational sites as well as the center facilities, so it can easily incorporate various new sensors and observations, provided by research projects and institutions all over the world which increasingly show interest in placing their sensors near and above the Iceland plume center. Besides preparing the network for enhancing the seismic and deformation observations, it should be prepared to include continuous gravity, continuous MT and continuous gas and hydrological monitoring, provided by other institutions.

A significant objective of the proposal is to design a remote, multidisciplinary, umanned observatory to be installed in the very harsh conditions of central Iceland, the European HOTSPOT Observatory Station. This design will become one of the main pillars for later extension of the HOTSPOT networks.