Jökull


Jökull - 01.12.1990, Side 166

Jökull - 01.12.1990, Side 166
the thickness of the floating ice cover has increased and the volume of the jökulhlaups decreased (Bjöms- son 1988; Björnsson and Guðmundsson, in prep.). Björnsson et al. (1982) have suggested that the heat flux from the geothermal area can be explained by pen- etration of water into the hot boundaries of a magma body at shallow depth. The observed cooling trend of the geothermal area in Grímsvötn may be explained by lack of magma refill (Bjömsson, 1988; Guðmundsson, 1989). The activity in Grímsvötn in 1983-84 had very dis- tinct seismic characteristics. Only a few earthquakes had been located in the Grímsvötn area before Decem- ber 1982. Then there was a distinct increase in activity, and in the following 6 months 20 locatable events oc- curred there. On May 28, 1983, an eruption broke out near the southern caldera wall, accompanied by an intense earthquake swarm (Einarsson and Brands- dóttir, 1984; Grönvold and Jóhannesson. 1984). The eruption was small and lasted only a few days. After the initial outbreak, seismicity dropped to a very low level and remained low for 4 months. In September and October 1983, seismic activity increased again, and more than 39 events occurred in Grímsvötn in the following 11 months. On August 21, 1984, a burst of continuous tremor appeared on seismographs as far as 130 km distant from Grímsvötn. The tremor lasted about an hour. It originated in the Vatnajökull area as judged from the relative amplitude on different seis- mographs. After this event only very few earthquakes have been found to originate in the Grímsvötn volcano. The seismicity pattem can be interpreted as the result of magmatic activity in the Grímsvötn volcano in the following way. Magma began flowing into a crustal magma chamber beneath the SE flank of the volcano in late 1982. In December that year, strain in the chamber roof passed the elastic limit and seismic activity increased. On May 28 1983, the chamber wall failed, and a dyke propagated to the surface, resulting inaneruption. Pressureinthechamberdropped, strain in the roof went below the elastic limit, and seismicity stopped. Magma continued flowing into the cham- ber, however, and in September 1983, the strain in the roof again reached the elastic limit. Seismic activity increased and continued until August 1984. Then the chamber wall failed again, resulting in a small eruption that did not reach the surface of the glacier. The pres- sure in the chamber dropped and the seismicity also. Now the flow of magma into the chamber was discon- tinued and the activity stopped. The main evidence for the eruption is the tremor burst and the sudden drop in earthquake activity that followed. The suggestion of a subglacial eruption in Gríms- vötn in August 1984 is supported by aerial observa- tions. A reconnaissance flight in August 20, 1984, revealed that the ice surface had an unusual number of depressions that could have been formed by localized melting of the floating ice shelf from below. Jökulhlaups were reported in the rivers Skaftá and Þjórsá in connection with volcanic activity in western Vatnajökull in 1783 (Þórarinsson, 1974). This activ- ity is generally thought to be related to the Grímsvötn system, including the gigantic Laki eruption (Þórðar- son, 1990). The jökulhlaup in Þjórsá would indicate, however, that the westemmost systems, Bárðarbunga or Loki were involved in these events as well. The same applies to the volcanic activity in 1766, which caused a jökulhlaup in Þjórsá. Since 1955, twenty jökulhlaups in Skaftá have originated in the geothermal areas beneath the two cauldrons located on the Loki Ridge, about 10 km to the northwest of Grímsvötn (see Bjömsson, 1988). This apparently reflects a change in geothermal activ- ity since jökulhlaups were much smaller from this area before (Bjömsson, 1977, p. 73). Björnsson (1977, p. 75-76; 1983) pointed out that this change coin- cided with a reduction in the power of the Grímsvötn geothermal area, and argued that it may have been caused by magmatic intrusion into the Loki area from the Grímsvötn volcano. It is noteworthy that seismic- ity increased in the Vatnajökull region at about this time (Tryggvason, 1973). There is a seismic indication that a small erup- tion occurred in 1986 during a Skaftá jökulhlaup from beneath the easternmost ice cauldron. The flood in Skaftá began on November 29, and on November 30 and the following day short bursts of continuous tremor were recorded on seismographs around Vatna- jökull. Relative amplitudes were consistent with a source near the eastem cauldron. In a reconnaissance 162 JÖKULL, No. 40, 1990
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