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I study the fumarolic ice caves of Erebus Volcano, and am looking for published research on similar sorts of caves. My criteria for a "fumarolic ice cave" are that it must be:

  • A gas-filled void space in a snowpack large enough to fit humans
  • Present because of geothermal or volcanic heat
  • Not primarily present because of a flow of water

So far, these are the fumarolic ice caves I know of:

I imagine there are probably hundreds more and these things are common on glaciated volcanoes. I'd be particularly interested in references for Kamchatka and Iceland where I suspect I may not be able to find information because of the language barrier.

Note that I am not asking about rock-hosted caves with a permanent ice mass.

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    $\begingroup$ Literally, the answer to your title question likely no. I think this question is difficult to answer. You already state there may be hundreds. What kind of answer are you looking for? $\endgroup$
    – gerrit ♦
    Apr 16 '14 at 18:21
  • $\begingroup$ True, the answer was obviously "no," so I just edited the title. I'm looking for an answer that includes a list of the ones I'm missing, or a reference to such a list. This might be a good community wiki question I guess. Can we do that? $\endgroup$
    – foobarbecue
    Apr 16 '14 at 18:24
  • $\begingroup$ This just seems to be too broad of a question. As you say, there's hundreds of these, and probably no well defined list. So then it turns into a list question... this meta question talks about list questions. $\endgroup$
    – hichris123 ♦
    Apr 16 '14 at 20:22
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    $\begingroup$ I think it's not broad at all -- it's a very specific, rare type of geological phenomenon and I think I've defined it well. It certainly is a list question and I wasn't aware of the unresolved debate over list questions. $\endgroup$
    – foobarbecue
    Apr 16 '14 at 21:30
  • $\begingroup$ I wonder if it's too specific. Wikipedia wouldn't host a list of these caves for that reason. To my mind, it's something akin to asking "what are all the large roundabouts with plants on the in the US"? $\endgroup$
    – naught101
    Apr 18 '14 at 1:01