Glacial melting generates magma beneath Island

Peter Schmidt and Björn Lund from the Geophysics program at the Department of Earth Sciences recently published an article in Journal of Geophysical Research where they show how the decrease in the ice-volume of Icelandic glaciers causes a decompression in the mantle, thereby increasing the magma production beneath the island. At the present de-glaciation rate, the mantle melt production rate is more than doubled, potentially leading to an additional volume of magma reaching the surface equivalent of an eruption the size of the Eyjafjallajökull

2010 summit eruption every seven years.

The article is highlighted in the September issue of Nature Geoscience, Research Highlight.

The full article can be accessed here.

3D-models of the melting region in the Icelandic mantle beneath the entire rift zone and beneath the largest glacier, Vatnajökull.