Rift obliquity is known to be very frequent at divergent plate boundaries and shear components in the opening of fissures have been detected through seismicity in the monitoring of recent rifting events. However, the field structural evidence of obliquity in active rifts for Holocene events is still poorly studied, despite its relevance at both the lithospheric and upper-crust scales.

We performed extensive high resolution UAV surveys on Holocene terrains in four areas along the active rift in the Northern Volcanic Zone of Iceland, to map structures and morphotectonic features in detail. We did a kinematic analysis and found an increase of the obliquity from N to S.

We further discuss the origins of this obliquity and suggest that the combination of inherited structures reactivation, magmatic intrusions, and topography influence on the propagation of both fractures and magma intrusions can have an impact on the mismatch between rift opening direction and the far-field strain.

We conclude that obliquity can be inferred for Holocene rifting events from surface structural data. It is thus fundamental to take into account the existing structural pattern and its (re)activation history in active rift zones to avoid missing out on possible preferential structure reactivation, magma propagation ways, and eruption sites during the monitoring of ongoing rifting events.