Subglacial eruption

Subglacial eruptions, those of ice-covered volcanoes, result in the interaction of magma with ice and snow, leading to meltwater formation, jökulhlaups, and lahars.

Flooding associated with meltwater is a significant hazard in some volcanic areas, including Iceland, Alaska, and parts of the Andes.

The resulting flood severely damaged buildings on the island, with complete destruction of a British scientific station.

[3] Meltwater flowed along a narrow basal glacier bed into a subglacial lake for five weeks, before being released as a sudden flood, or jökulhlaup.

Although it has been proposed that subglacial volcanism may play a role in the dynamics of West Antarctic ice streams by supplying water to their base, for the Gjalp eruption, no rapid basal sliding was observed at the regional scale, with the formation of ice cauldrons over eruptive fissures due to the sudden removal of mass at the base.