Introduction to special issue on volcano-ice interactions on Earth and Mars : the state of the science.
The study of volcano-ice interactions, also referred to as ‘glaciovolcanism’ (e.g., Kelman et al., 2002), has become an important topic of scientific research over the past 30 years, even though its study goes back to the early 1900s (Peacock, 1926; Noe-Nygaard, 1940; Mathews, 1947; van Bremmelen an...
| Published in: | Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2009
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/27171/ https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/27171/1/JVGR_Vol_Ice_Intro_Final.doc https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2009.06.003 |
| Summary: | The study of volcano-ice interactions, also referred to as ‘glaciovolcanism’ (e.g., Kelman et al., 2002), has become an important topic of scientific research over the past 30 years, even though its study goes back to the early 1900s (Peacock, 1926; Noe-Nygaard, 1940; Mathews, 1947; van Bremmelen and Rutten, 1953). Four important themes drive this increasing importance: volcano hazard awareness and prevention, the Pleistocene global climate record, potential feedbacks between deglaciation and volcanism, and Martian geoscience research. As awareness, assessment and mitigation of environmental hazards becomes a dominant theme around the world, much attention has focused on hazards associated with snow and ice-covered volcanoes (e.g., 2009 eruptions at Nevado del Huila in Columbia and Redoubt volcano in Alaska). The disaster at Nevado del Ruiz in 1985 was a wake-up call for the world community of disaster planners as it demonstrated that even relatively small eruptions at such volcanoes can lead to significant hazards (Major and Newhall, 1989). Such hazards are widespread, occurring at a large number of volcanoes in the North and South American Cordilleras, the northwest Pacific, Iceland and elsewhere. The potential for the sudden generation and release of large quantities of meltwater at snow- and ice-covered volcanoes, either as lahars (e.g. Nevado del Ruiz) or jökulhlaups (e.g. Gjálp) is the major concern. Although hazards from volcano-ice/snow interactions are increasingly recognized by emergency planners, especially in Iceland (e.g. Eliasson et al., 2006) and the United States (e.g. Till et al., 1993), awareness and mitigation strategies elsewhere have room for significant improvement. Secondly, volcanoes that have interacted with ice may provide a unique record of changing Pleistocene ice thicknesses, which is invaluable for improving palaeo-climatic reconstructions (e.g. Smellie et al., 2008). One of the chronic problems of glacial geology is providing absolute timing constraints to differentiate periods of ... |
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