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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2003; v. 212; p. 117-133;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.2003.212.01.08
© 2003 Geological Society of London

A four-year study of shear-wave splitting in Iceland: 1. Background and preliminary analysis

T. Volti1,2 & S. Crampin1,3

1 School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JW, UK scrampin{at}ed.ac.uk
2 Japan Marine Science and Technology Centre, Yokahama, 237-0061, Japan
3 Edinburgh Anisotropy Project, British Geological Survey, Edinburgh, EH9 3LA, UK

A four-year study of seismic shear-wave splitting in Iceland was designed to seek temporal variations before earthquakes. Shear-wave splitting is observed routinely in Iceland whenever shear-waves arrive within the shear-wave window of seismic stations, and whenever adequate data are available, temporal and spatial variations in shear-wave splitting are observed before both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Shear-wave splitting is caused principally by the stress-aligned fluid-saturated microcracks and pore throats in almost all in situ rocks. Fluid-saturated microcracks are the most compliant elements of the rock mass, and changes in splitting can be directly interpreted and modelled as the effects of changing stress on the microcrack geometry in the rock mass often at considerable distances from the immediate earthquake source zone. Such changes were found and are reported in Part 2 of this study. This chapter presents the background, preliminary observations, and analysis of shear-wave splitting in Iceland.