Subglacial volcano

A subglacial volcano is a volcanic form produced by subglacial eruptions or eruptions beneath the surface of a glacier or ice sheet which is then melted into a lake by the rising lava. Today they are most common in Iceland and Antarctica; older formations of this type are found also in British Columbia and Yukon Territory, Canada.

During the eruption, the heat of the lava from the subglacial volcano melts the overlying ice. The water quickly cools the lava, resulting in pillow lava shapes similar to those of underwater volcanoes. When the pillow lavas break off and roll down the volcano slopes, pillow breccia, tuff breccia, and hyaloclastite form. The melted water may be released from below the ice as happened in Iceland in 1996 when the Grimsvötn caldera erupted, melted 3 cubic km ice and gave rise to a large glacial lake outburst flood.

The shape of subglacial volcanoes tends to be quite characteristic and unusual, with a flattened top and steep sides supported against collapse by the pressure of the surrounding ice and meltwater. If the volcano eventually melts completely through the ice layer, then horizontal lava flows are deposited, and the top of the volcano assumes a nearly-level form. However, if significant amounts of lava are later erupted subaerially, then the volcano may assume a more conventional shape. The more distinctly flat-topped, steep-sided subglacial volcanoes are called tuyas, named after Tuya Butte in northern British Columbia by Canadian geologist Bill Mathews in 1947. In Iceland, such volcanoes are also known as table mountains.

Antarctica eruption

On January, 2008, the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) scientists led by Hugh Corr and David Vaughan, reported (in the journal Nature Geoscience) that 2,200 years ago, a volcano erupted under Antarctica ice sheet (based on airborne survey with radar images). The biggest eruption in the last 10,000 years, the volcanic ash was found deposited on the ice surface under the Hudson Mountains, close to Pine Island Glacier. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7194579.stm BBC NEWS, Ancient Antarctic eruption noted] ]

References

* [http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/volcanoes/type_e.php Volcanoes of Canada: Types of volcanoes] Accessed Jan. 8, 2006