In the last few years new data about the Icelandic mantleplume has emerged that forever has changed how we look at it, and how it affects Iceland.
In yon olden days, it was perceived through the eyes of the original plume model that was devised to explain the Emperor Seamount Chain and Hawaii. That means that it should have deep origin within the mantle, or even spring out from the boundary between the mantle and the outer core.
It was also believed that the Icelandic mantleplume would have emplaced a plume track in the same manner as the Emperor Seamount Chain. The idea was that it would be a remnant plume from the Alpha Ridge Large Igneous Province event that had meandered over to its current location via Greenland.
The only problem was that almost all evidence pointed away from this plume model as an explanation for Iceland. As science progressed it turned out that almost no mantleplume on earth behaves as the Emperor Plume does. It was the odd bird out and should never have been used as the defining plume for the mantleplume theory.
So, let us throw out the old and bring in the new and see where we stand.
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