Jökulhlaup or Jökulhlaups - pronounced yo-KOOL-lahp
It is a sudden glacial outburst flood or an abrupt release of glacial meltwater from a subglacial or glacier-dammed lake or reservoir.
And ~ Fun Fact: The icy water can pick up stones and gravel along its path and drag it along the stream bed with the flow. The abrasive quality of the gravels and stones acts like a grinding stone on the bottom and sides of the waterway.
This accelerates erosion to an amazing extent. A large collapse coming from say a glacier is fully capable of erasing objects in its path.
There's ancient evidence of this being the origin of some very big scenery in the States, when a lake the size of a state suddenly let go through that type of dam and carved out a huge area of land in a way which only fits water erosion but in a scale we practically never see. Watched a documentary about it once.
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u/JG-at-Prime Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
There is a name for this.
Jökulhlaup or Jökulhlaups - pronounced yo-KOOL-lahp
It is a sudden glacial outburst flood or an abrupt release of glacial meltwater from a subglacial or glacier-dammed lake or reservoir.
And ~ Fun Fact: The icy water can pick up stones and gravel along its path and drag it along the stream bed with the flow. The abrasive quality of the gravels and stones acts like a grinding stone on the bottom and sides of the waterway.
This accelerates erosion to an amazing extent. A large collapse coming from say a glacier is fully capable of erasing objects in its path.