The volcanic response to deglaciation: Evidence from glaciated arcs and a reassessment of global eruption records

Several lines of evidence have previously been used to suggest that ice retreat after the last glacial maximum (LGM) resulted in regionally-increased levels of volcanic activity. It has been proposed that this increase in volcanism was globally significant, forming a substantial component of the post-glacial rise in atmospheric CO2, and thereby contributing to climatic warming. However, as yet there has been no detailed investigation of activity in glaciated volcanic arcs following the LGM. Arc volcanism accounts for 90% of present-day subaerial volcanic eruptions. It is therefore important to constrain the impact of deglaciation on arc volcanoes, to understand fully the nature and magnitude of global-scale relationships between volcanism and glaciation. The first part of this paper examines the post-glacial explosive eruption history of the Andean southern volcanic zone (SVZ), a typical arc system, with additional data from the Kamchatka and Cascade arcs. In all cases, eruption rates in the early post-glacial period do not exceed those at later times at a statistically significant level. In part, the recognition and quantification of what may be small (i.e. less than a factor of two) increases in eruption rate is hindered by the size of our datasets. These datasets are limited to eruptions larger than 0.1 km3, because deviations from power-law magnitude–frequency relationships indicate strong relative under-sampling at smaller eruption volumes. In the southern SVZ, where ice unloading was greatest, eruption frequency in the early post-glacial period is approximately twice that of the mid post-glacial period (although frequency increases again in the late post-glacial). A comparable pattern occurs in Kamchatka, but is not observed in the Cascade arc. The early post-glacial period also coincides with a small number of very large explosive eruptions from the most active volcanoes in the southern and central SVZ, consistent with enhanced ponding of magma during glaciat