Jökull - 01.01.2011, Page 27

LiDAR mapping of the Snæfellsjökull ice cap
Figure 6. Change in the surface elevation of Snæfellsjökull from 1999 to 2008 (area 12.5 km2 in 2002 and
10.0 km2 in 2008). The red curve shows the ice margin in 2002. Dashed thin lines show the location of W–E
profiles across the ice cap that are drawn in Figure 4. – Hæðarbreyting Snæfellsjökuls (flatarmál jökulsins var
12.5 km2 árið 2002 og 10.0 km2 árið 2008) frá 1999 til 2008. Rauði ferillinn sýnir legu jökuljaðarsins árið
2002. Slitnar línur sýna staðsetningu sniða þvert yfir jökulinn frá vestri til austurs sem sýnd eru á 4. mynd.
ness is variable, with relatively large areas with less
thickness than 10–20 m. The ice is thicker in the
main outlet tongues of Blágilsjökull, Jökulháls and
Hyrningsjökull and directly to the west and east of
the summit where ice thicknesses greater than 40–
50 m were measured by Davíðsdóttir and co-workers
(2003). The downwasting of the areas where the ice is
thinnest is likely to produce areas of inactive ice that
will waste down more quickly than the rest of the ice
cap as has already happened on the northeastern side
of Snæfellsjökull where a part of the glacier below the
equilibrium line became detached between 2002 and
2008 as seen on Figure 5 (right). The uppermost areas
and those with the thickest ice will last longer but may
be split into several smaller patches as the thin-ice ar-
eas become ice-free.
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