Hydrology of Ice Caps in Volcanic Regions

Abstract

Hydrology of Ice Caps in Volcanic Regions actually concerns itself with the hydrology of two ice caps in Iceland rather than the global topic the title implies. However, the unique condition in Iceland—an ice cap resting between two diverging plates of the Earth's crust—provides an excellent location to study ice‐volcano and ice‐geothermal interactions.An important motivation for this work, as for any of the glaciological studies in Iceland, is to understand the mechanics of glacier outburst floods (Jökulhlaups) that result from the release of large volumes of water stored at the base of the ice caps. Although outburst floods may be common to all glaciers, the magnitudes of the floods from Icelandic ice caps dwarf the historic outburst floods from other glaciers and are the largest glacier outburst floods in historic times, usually exceeding 1 km3 and occasionally exceeding 5 km3! The peak water discharge during these events can reach 40,000 m3/s, which exceeds the average flow of the Mississippi River. Considering that these floods occur every 2'10 years and cause havoc to transportation routes (the Icelanders will not live in flood plains), an understanding of how these floods develop is extremely important.