Sir,

This paper begins by saying: “According to Nye (1976), the outburst of glacier-dammed lakes, in particular the well-known Icelandic jökulhlaups, should proceed from irreversible broadening of the capillary veins”. The paper quoted, in fact, says exactly the opposite. Indeed, it has a complete section (section 6) explaining why vein flow should not lead to jökulhlaups. It is hard to see how such a fundamental misunderstanding could arise but I am glad to have this opportunity of correcting it.

A few lines further on there is a second point. Professor Lliboutry says “Nye’s (1976) theory… contradicts Nye and Mae (1972)” but does not elaborate further. No contradiction was intended. If he could say what kind of contradiction he has in mind here, I could try to resolve it.

24 February 1997