However one word that has always fascinated me and drawn me to its country of origin is jökulhlaup. A term derived from the Icleandic for glacier ( jökull) and burst or flood (hlaup), which we use to describe a glacially-derived outburst flood. They are often triggered by a tuya - also in my list - which is a subglacial volcanic eruption. These two events are excellent reasons why Iceland is called the land of 'fire and ice.' Here are two videos that illustrate this process in action following the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010.
I didn't become really fascinated with jökulhlaups until after I had read about the Wegner-esque experience of J. Harlen Bretz. Faced by similar dogmatic biases from the geologic community, Bretz challenged the status-quo and argued that the scablands of the western United States were created through a catastrophic flood. However, similar to Wegner, he failed to provide a 'smoking gun' that would convince his detractors. The origin of this flood (although, generally accepted as multiple flooding events) was later identified by J.T. Pardee as jökulhlaup events from Glacial Lake Missoula. Two excellent books on this topic are "Glacial Lake Missoula and its Humungous Floods" by David Alt and "Bretz's Flood" by John Soennichsen.
Fortunately for me, I also lack photographs of a jökulhlaup in action but here are a few photos taken while traveling through the scablands in 2000:
2 comments:
Ever want some more pictures of the Channeled Scablands, just let me know. Being from SE WA I have a few. You can visit my blog and see a few pics of the Cascades too. Tales of AlpacaRob - P.G. WA St
Great photographs taken on these parts.
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