Dasbach and Lin proved a "volumish theorem" for alternating links. We prove the analogue for alternating link diagrams on surfaces, which provides bounds on the hyperbolic volume of a link in a thickened surface in terms of coefficients of its reduced Jones-Krushkal polynomial. Along the way, we show that certain coefficients of the 4-variable Krushkal polynomial express the cycle rank of the reduced Tait graph on the surface.

The research of both authors is partially supported by grants from the Simons Foundation and PSC-CUNY.