Community added value and contribution to EU policies

The Iceland Hotspot and its roots, i.e. the Iceland mantle plume has for a long time been a center of attention of earth scientists all over the world. Effects of the Hotspot are seen by gravity anomalies thousand of kilometers outside Iceland. It is indicated by measurements that crustal stresses in northern Europe and northern America are influenced by the Hotspot. The mantle plume has been modelled by studying teleseismic signals from earthquakes around the world as a narrow chimney of upwelling mantle material from a depth of 400 km, and it is indicated that the roots may be much deeper, i.e. at the intersection between the mantle and the core of the earth. Iceland is the center of the Hotspot activity, where frequent magma intrusions of various intensity modify stress conditions all over the country, and sometimes rupture the crust, resulting in earthquakes, frequent volcanic eruptions and episodes of large land deformations. The largest lava eruption in history started near the center of the Hotspot in 1783. This was the Laki eruption, which caused climatic changes in Europe and northern America. It caused such difficulties in farming in Europe, that some historicans claim it was a contributing factor in triggering the French revolution. HOTSPOT creates a European research basis which is of an enormous significance for scientific activities in various fields of earth sciences, ranging from direct contribution to hazard assessment and warning research to basic understanding of crust/mantle dynamics and processes. Hotspot contributes to the EU activities of using Iceland with its intensive earth activity and high level observations as a Natural Laboratory for research aimed at natural hazards mitigation and for understanding the cause of natural hazards and migration of stresses along the earth's crust.

HOTSPOT is based on and consolidates the results obtained in the two 4th framework projects of EU, the PRENLAB project and the PRENLAB-2 project. The good results of these multidisciplinary and multinational projects signify the idea of concerted European efforts in utilizing the natural and technological facilities of the "Iceland Natural Laboratory" for research. HOTSPOT consolidates and brings that idea further.