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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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closed as too broad by EnergyNumbers, hichris123♦, gerrit♦, casey♦, BHF Apr 18 '14 at 17:55

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. Avoid asking multiple distinct questions at once. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

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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