2nd Volcano-Ice Interaction on Earth and Mars Conference

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
June 19th-22nd 2007


Conveners: Ben Edwards, Dickinson College, USA; Ian Skilling, University of Pittsburgh, USA; Lionel Wilson, University of Lancaster, UK, Hugh Tuffen, University of Lancaster, UK.

Planning is now almost complete for the meeting. We have a lower number of attendees at the meeting than we had hoped (due we think to several other conflicting similar meetings), but I hope you'll agree we have an excellent group of presentations planned that cover a broad range of glaciovolcanic topics.

Many of you have expressed an interest in publishing a paper from the meeting in a Special Issue of Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research to be edited by Lionel Wilson et al. If you haven't contacted Ian Skilling (skilling@pitt.edu) to let him know of your interest yet, then please do so now. The latest details of the fieldtrips, accommodation and the links to abstracts can now be found on this website, as of 22/05/07.

This conference is a follow-up to the first Volcano-Ice Interaction on Earth and Mars Conference, held in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2000, and will also build upon the International Symposium on Earth and Planetary Volcano-Ice Interactions, organized by the International Glaciological Society (IGS), also in Reykjavik in June 2006. The VII2 conference is sponsored by the IAVCEI Working Group on Volcano-Ice Interaction, University of British Columbia (UBC), Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), and the University of Pittsburgh, USA. Further support from the IAVCEI Commissions on Explosive Volcanism (CEV) and Volcanogenic Sediments (CVS) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) is pending. VII2 will in particular be a chance to see and discuss the many superb examples of non-basaltic volcano-ice interaction that are preserved in British Columbia and north-west USA.

Interactions between volcanism and snow or ice lead to a diversity of eruption products, landforms and hazardous phenomena. Examples include the formation of steep-sided tuyas during eruptions under ice caps and the generation of lahars by mixing of pyroclastic materials with summit snowpack. While often poorly observed, the consequences can be highly hazardous to adjacent communities. Furthermore, subglacial edifices exposed by glacier removal yield information on past climatic conditions.

The potential for volcano-ice interactions to have occurred on Mars means that a rigorous understanding of the terrestrial glaciovolcanism is necessary before we can understand the implications for the evolution of the martian climate and environment. Progress towards understanding the variety and consequences of volcano-ice interactions comes though field studies of exposed edifices and deposits, remote sensing and geophysical monitoring, and modeling of the physics of heat transfer and fluid dynamics.

In this conference we seek to bring together practitioners in these sub-disciplines to highlight recent advances in our understanding and to map the path to further progress in elucidating the mechanisms and consequences of volcano-ice interactions.

 

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