Formation and persistence of glaciovolcanic voids explored with analytical and numerical models
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| Authors: | Unnsteinsson, T; Flowers, G; Williams-Jones, G |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Journal: | Journal of Glaciology PDF Article Link (DOI) |
| Title: | Formation and persistence of glaciovolcanic voids explored with analytical and numerical models |
| Abstract: | One fifth of Earth’s volcanoes are covered by snow or ice and many have active geothermal systems that interact with the overlying ice. These glaciovolcanic interactions can melt voids into glaciers, and are subject to controls exerted by ice dynamics and geothermal heat output. Glaciovol11 canic voids have been observed to form prior to volcanic eruptions, which raised concerns when such features were discovered within Job Glacier on Qwelqwelústen (Mount Meager Volcanic Complex), British Columbia, Canada. In this study we model the formation, evolution, and steady-state morphol15 ogy of glaciovolcanic voids using analytical and numerical models. Analytical steady-state void geometries show cave height limited to one quarter of the ice thickness, while numerical model results suggest the void height h scales with ice thickness H and geothermal heat flux Q as h/H = aHbQc, with exponents b =-n/2 and c = 1/2 where n is the creep exponent. Applying this scaling to the glaciovolcanic voids within Job Glacier suggests the potential for total geothermal heat flux in excess of 10 MW. Our results show that relative changes in ice thickness are more influential in glaciovolcanic void formation and evolution than relative changes in geothermal heat flux. |
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