Debris Flow Triggered by Rapid Snowmelt: A Case Study in The Glei .arhjalli Area, Northwestern Iceland

Debris flows in the Gleivarhjalli area in northwestern Iceland occurred after a sudden and intensive snowmelt period during 10–12 June, 1999. The area, in the northwestern part of the town of Ísafjörvur, was chosen for a detailed study. Meteorological data and bedrock conditions, triggering mechanisms and geomorphological and human impacts were examined. This paper describes and emphasises the role of rapid snowmelt as a mechanism for the release of debris flows in a subpolar basaltic fjord setting. Post‐event mapping of erosional and depositional landforms showed strong geomorphic impacts of debris flows and their role in mass transfer in a mountainous environment. The estimated denudation rate for the singleevent is 0.29 mm/km². The use of a new lichen growth curve provides relative dating of previous unreported events. Finally, the paper estimates the mean return period for debris‐flow events in the Gleivarhjalli area as 4–5 years, thus constituting a serious threat to the community.     

Recent,very rapid retreat of a temperate glacier in SE Iceland

Iceland's glaciers are particularly sensitive to climate change, and their margins respond to trends in air temperature. Most Icelandic glaciers have been in retreat since c. 1990, and almost all since 1995. Using ice‐front measurements, photographic and geomorphological evidence, we examined the record of ice‐front fluctuations of Virkisjökull–Falljökull, a steep high‐mass‐turnover outlet glacier in maritime SE Iceland, in order to place recent changes in a longer‐term (80‐year) context. Detailed geomorphological mapping identifies two suites of annual push moraines: one suite formed between c. 1935 and 1945, supported by lichenometric dating; the other between 1990 and 2004. Using moraine spacing as a proxy for ice‐front retreat rates, we show that average retreat rates during the 1930s and 1940s (28 m a^?1) were twice as high as during the period from 1990 to 2004 (14 m a^?1). Furthermore, we show that both suites of annual moraines are associated with above‐average summer temperatures. Since 2005, however, retreat rates have increased considerably – averaging 35 m a^?1 – with the last 5 years representing the greatest amount of ice‐front retreat (～190 m) in any 5‐year period since measurements began in 1932. We propose that this recent, rapid, ice‐front retreat and thinning in a decade of unusually warm summers has resulted in a glaciological threshold being breached, with subsequent large‐scale stagnation of the glacier terminus (i.e. no forward movement) and the cessation of annual push‐moraine formation. Breaching this threshold has, we suggest, caused further very rapid non‐uniform retreat and downwasting since 2005 via a system feedback between surface melting, glacier thinning, decreased driving stress and decreased forward motion.     

The 1991 eruption of Hekla,Iceland

The eruption that started in the Hekla volcano in South Iceland on 17 January 1991, and came to an end on 11 March, produced mainly andesitic lava. This lava covers 23 km² and has an estimated volume of 0.15 km³. This is the third eruption in only 20 years, whereas the average repose period since 1104 is 55 years. Earthquakes, as well as a strain pulse recorded by borehole strainmeters, occurred less than half an hour before the start of the eruption. The initial plinian phase was very short-lived, producing a total of only 0.02 km³ of tephra. The eruption cloud attained 11.5 km in height in only 10 min, but it became detached from the volcano a few hours later. Several fissures were active during the first day of the eruption, including a part of the summit fissure. By the second day, however, the activity was already essentially limited to that segment of the principal fissure where the main crater subsequently formed. The average effusion rate during the first two days of the eruption was about 800 m³ s^–1. After this peak, the effusion rate declined rapidly to 10–20 m³ s^–1, then more slowly to 1 m³ s^–1, and remained at 1–12 m³ s^–1 until the end of the eruption. Site observations near the main crater suggest that the intensity of the volcanic tremor varied directly with the force of the eruption. A notable rise in the fluorine concentration of riverwater in the vicinity of the eruptive fissures occurred on the 5th day of the eruption, but it levelled off on the 6th day and then remained essentially constant. The volume and initial silica content of the lava and tephra, the explosivity and effusion rate during the earliest stage of the eruption, as well as the magnitude attained by the associated earthquakes, support earlier suggestions that these parameters are positively related to the length of the preceeding repose period. The chemical difference between the eruptive material of Hekla itself and the lavas erupted in its vicinity can be explained in terms of a density-stratified magma reservoir located at the bottom of the crust. We propose that the shape of this reservoir, its location at the west margin of a propagating rift, and its association with a crustal weakness, all contribute to the high eruption frequency of Hekla.