Glacial lake outburst flood
A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a jökulhlaup. The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine. Failure can happen due to erosion, a buildup of water pressure, an avalanche of rock or heavy snow, an earthquake or cryoseism, volcanic eruptions under the ice, or massive displacement of water in a glacial lake when a large portion of an adjacent glacier collapses into it.
Hubbard Glacier, Alaska, squeezes towards Gibert Point on 20 May 2002. The glacier is close to sealing off Russell Fjord (top) from Disenchantment Bay (below).
In this Hubbard Glacier image from 16 July 2002, the glacier has closed off Russell Fjord from Disenchantment Bay. The waters behind the glacier rose 61 feet (19 m) in 10 weeks, creating a short lived Russell Lake.
The Hubbard Glacier is overwhelmed on 14 August 2002 in the second largest GLOF in historical times.
Tsho Rolpa Glacier Lake is one of the biggest glacial lakes in Nepal. The lake, which is located at an altitude of 4,580 metres (15,030 ft) in the Rolwaling Valley, Dolakha District, has grown considerably over the last 50 years due to glacial melting in the Himalayas.
In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around the ice. At the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, large proglacial lakes were a widespread feature in the northern hemisphere.
Argentinian proglacial lakes: Lago Viedma (middle), Lago Argentino (left) and Lago San Martin (right). Retreating glaciers are visible at the top.
Tarn—a proglacial lake impounded by the terminal moraine of the retreating Schoolroom Glacier in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Lake Blåvatnet in Lyngen Alps, Norway located below Lenangsbreene glaciers and surrounded by several moraines formed during Younger Dryas and early Holocene
The Hubbard Glacier closed off the Russell Fjord from Disenchantment Bay in 2002 to cause the waters behind the glacier to rise 61 feet (19 m) over 10 weeks in a proglacial lake until they broke through.
