Tectonic Control of the Reykjanes Geothermal Field in the Oblique Rift of SW Iceland: From Regional to Reservoir Scales

This paper presents a multidisciplinary structural analysis of the Reykjanes Peninsula where Holocene deformation of a young oblique rift controls the geothermal processes in presence of a transform segment. The new structural map from aerial images and outcrops is correlated with selected surface and subsurface data and shows a complex pattern: NNE extensional rift structures, N-S dextral and ENE sinistral oblique-slip Riedel shears of the transform zone, and WNW and NW dextral oblique-slip faults. Shear fractures are more common, and along with the NNE fractures, they compartmentalise the crustal blocks at any scale. The fractures are within two ENE Riedel shear zones, indicating a minimum 7.5 km wide transform zone. The greatly deformed Southern Riedel Shear Zone is bounded to the north and the south by the 1972 and the 2013 earthquake swarms. This shear zone contains the geothermal field in a highly fractured block to the west of a major NW structure. Some of the deformations are: a) clockwise rotation of rift structures by the 1972 earthquake zone, inducing local compression; b) magma injection into extensional and oblique-slip shear fractures; c) reactivation of rift structures by transform zone earthquakes; d) tectonic control of reservoir boundaries by WNW and ENE shear fractures, and the distribution of surface alteration, fumaroles, CO2 flux, reservoir fluid flow and the overall shape of pressure drawdown by N-S, ENE, WNW/NW and NNE fractures. Results demonstrate the role of seismo-tectonic boundaries beyond which fault types and density change, with implications for permeability.