A diagnostic, dynamic/thermodynamic ice-shelf model is applied to the George VI Ice Shelf, situated in the Bellinghausen Sea, Antarctica. The George VI Ice Shelf has a peculiar flow geometry which sets it apart from other ice shelves. Inflow occurs along the two longest, and almost parallel, sides, whereas outflow occurs on the two ice fronts that are relatively short and situated at opposite ends of the ice shelf. Two data sources were used to derive the ice thickness distribution: conventional radioecho sounding from the British Antarctic Survey was combined with thickness inferred from surface elevation obtained by the NASA GLAS satellite system assuming hydrostatic equilibrium. We simulate the present ice flow over the ice shelf that results from the ice thickness distribution, the inflow at the grounding line and the flow rate factor. The high spatial resolution of the ice thickness distribution leads to very detailed simulations. The flow field has some extraordinary elements (e.g. the stagnation point characteristics resulting from the unusual ice-shelf geometry).

Some flutes which occur on the surface of a series of glacio-fluvial sediments at the margin of Blomstrandbreen, north-west Spitsbergen, are described. A section in one has revealed a complex internal structure, in which originally horizontal beds have been folded into an anticline whose axis is normal to the ice margin, and whose structure is related to the morphology of the flute.

Comparison of the observed deformation with the theoretical distribution of stresses around the base of a subglacial tunnel shows that this deformation could have resulted from How under such a stress system. It is considered that these observations support the hypothesis that flutes are formed when unfrozen, water-soaked materials deform subglacially due to the pressure differences which exist in the vicinity of an ice tunnel formed in the lee of some rigid obstruction to ice flow.

For 40 years Anonymous (J. Glaciol., 8(52), 1969) has been the effective standard of glacier mass-balance terminology. It grew out of a concern for clarity in the communication of information, and has guided thinking about mass balance in many ways. Certain ambiguities and gaps in its conceptualization have become more evident with the passage of time, and some have been aggravated by ad hoc extensions of and deviations from the standard. Methodological progress means that a review of the terminology of Anonymous (1969) is now timely, and a forthcoming glossary to be published by the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences addresses this need. There are good reasons for being concerned about clear terminology, but consistent usage by the members of a large community cannot be secured other than by consensus.

The absorption of radio waves propagating through naturally occurring waters varies greatly with the electrical conductivity. Glacier melt water is very transparent and the attenuation by melt water layers is due to reflexion of power, whereas the attenuation of sea-water layers is due to absorption. The attenuation of soaked firn is usually prohibitive if the liquid is brine but it should not be a serious obstacle to radio echo strength if the liquid is rain-water or melt water. However, the magnitude of the scattered power can become greater than that from continuous (bedrock) reflectors if the size of the irregularities in the medium is large (approaching the radio wavelength in ice). Echo power formulae show that ice lenses may have the most serious effect and that low radio frequencies will be necessary to combat this.

Temperature records from several randkluft sites at the margins and headwall of Boundary Glacier (lat. 52° 12′ N., long. 117° 12′ W.) in the Canadian Rocky Mountains are presented. These records indicate that during the ablation season a diurnal freeze-thaw air and rock-surface temperature regime occurs in a 2 m wide zone centred on the randkluft lip. Deeper in the randkluft, stable sub-zero conditions prevail whereas above the randkluft an above-freezing temperature regime prevails. The freeze-thaw temperature regime, observed freezing of melt water and rain water on randkluft rock surfaces, and copious in-situ loose weathering products on the headwall and marginal free faces suggest an active frost-shattering environment. Down-slope migration of the randkluft lip during the ablation season results in a migration of the freeze-thaw zone and thus a seasonal extension of the rock surface area exposed to the favorable weathering environment. Longer-term glacier fluctuations, with attendant thinning and thickening of the ice body, could result in large areas of marginal and headwall rock surfaces being exposed to the randkluft weathering environment over long periods of time. The data and observations from Boundary Glacier support an idea, suggested by Battle (1960), that open and shallow randklufts, rather than closed and deep bergschrunds, are a focus of weathering at glacier margins and thus a potential factor in cirque development.

To get a better overview of atmosphere-driven mass changes at the 79N Glacier (Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier), the largest outlet glacier of the northeast Greenland ice stream, the surface mass balance (SMB) is modeled by linking the COupled Snowpack and Ice surface energy and mass-balance model in PYthon (COSIPY) with the output of a regional atmospheric model (Polar WRF) for the years 2014–2018. After a manual model optimization, the model produces reliable results when compared to observations in the region and to values from the literature. High spatial resolution (1 km) simulations reveal strong interannual variability of the SMB. Stronger surface melting increased the ablation and runoff in years with high mass loss (2016 and 2017) whereas in other years (2015 and 2018) melting and refreezing inside the snowpack dominated the mass balance (MB). A cooler regional climate with higher snowfall-driven accumulation, higher albedo and reduced surface melt in the ablation period of 2018 resulted in a positive SMB in 2018, however, the annual total MB remained negative. The results suggest a promising new dataset for gaining more insights into mass-balance processes and their contribution to the acceleration of glacier retreat in northeast Greenland.

Avalanche tarns are a particular morphological form of avalanche impact and sixteen of these features are described from the Fiordland region of New Zealand. Average area of the tarns is 11000 m2. Profiles are given for eight of the avalanche paths where such tarns occur. All are found at the base of very steep avalanche tracks (slopes 38–59°), where there are no fans, so that there is an abrupt change of slope with the valley floor. The plunging avalanches which cause the tarns may have a mass of up to 300000 tonnes and impact pressures of more than 600 kN/m2, although no direct measurements are available.

We present a new algorithm for a fast iterative improvement of the shallow-ice approximation (SIA) for the modeling of glacier flow. Based on the traditional SIA scaling assumptions, the solution of the Stokes problem is found by an operator-splitting iterative technique. The SIA solution obtained in the first step is successively improved to obtain a higher-order approximation. Each iterative step has computational demands comparable to solving the SIA, which makes the algorithm substantially faster than other higher-order or full-Stokes solvers. The performance of the algorithm is tested on a model example taken from the ISMIP-HOM intercomparison project.

An experimental study of ice deformation at the confluence area of Unteraargletscher, Bernese Alps, Switzerland, has been carried out. Surface velocities were measured by repeatedly surveying stakes and with the use of remote-sensing methods. The variation of the vertical strain rates with depth was measured in boreholes. The confluence center line is subjected to longitudinal horizontal extension, which is exceeded in magnitude by a concomitant transverse compression. Vertical strain rates change from positive (extension) at the surface to negative (compression) in the lowest layers of the glacier.

Over the past 50 years, ideas relating to the physical features and dynamics of ice sheets have evolved materially, primarily due to modern technological advances in the acquisition of basic data. This paper therefore does not review contemporary knowledge but records how our perception of ice sheets has changed with time. Rather than dealing with individual contributions to the understanding of ice sheets, major topics and concepts are considered against a background of earlier ideas and theories.

Both the form and extent of the surface features of ice sheets have been defined more clearly by the relatively recent use of satellite studies (imagery and altimetry). In an analogous way, radio echo-sounding has enabled the accurate calculation of ice thicknesses and the mapping of the sub-ice bedrock contours, and hence estimation of the ice volume. Studies on the dynamics of ice sheets have been enhanced by bore-hole sampling of deep ice and the determination of ice-temperature distributions, coupled with measurements of mass balance and both surface and internal ice movement. Internal deformation of ice sheets, surging, and various flow theories are considered in relation to recent modelling studies. Global geophysics inevitably includes the role of ice sheets, and therefore climatological studies and new atmospheric chemistry data, together with information on the distribution of meteorites on the Antarctic ice sheet, are considered critically.

Modern concepts of the evolution of ice sheets have substantially modified earlier ideas of the glacial geologists and have explained much that had previously mystified them.

Buried surface hoar and near-surface faceted crystals are known to lead to deadly avalanches. Over the course of three winter seasons a field investigation detailing the environmental conditions leading to the formation of these crystals was performed. Weather stations on north- and south-facing aspects were established. The weather data were accompanied by detailed daily observations and grain-scale photographs of the snow surface. During the three seasons, 35 surface hoar and 47 near-surface facets events were recorded. The mean weather conditions for the entire dataset (all three seasons and both stations) were compared to the nights when surface hoar formed. The comparison yielded five parameters that were statistically linked to the formation of surface hoar: incoming longwave radiation, snow surface temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity and the air/snow temperature difference. A similar comparison between the daytime mean values for all days with near-surface facet events revealed three parameters with statistically significant differences. Thus, these parameters (short- and longwave radiation and relative humidity) could be statistically linked to facet formation. This research also suggests that environmental conditions in the daytime hours before and after surface hoar formation are statistically similar to the conditions causing near-surface facet formation.

We assess the importance of basal boundary conditions for transient simulations of Basin 3, Austfonna ice cap between January 1995 and December 2011 and for the surge starting in 2012 by carrying out simulations with the full-Stokes model Elmer/Ice and the vertically-integrated model BISICLES. Time-varying surface mass-balance data from the regional climate model HIRHAM5 are downscaled according to elevation. Basal friction coefficient is varied through time by interpolating between two data-constrained inversions of surface velocity fields, from 1995 and 2011. Evolution of the basal boundary condition appears to be much more important for mass discharge and the dynamic response of the fast flowing unit in Basin 3 than either model choice or the downscaling method for the surface mass balance. In addition, temporally linear extrapolation of the evolution of basal friction coefficient beyond the 2011 distribution could not reproduce the expansion of the acceleration observed in southern Basin 3 between January 2012 and June 2013. This implies that changes in basal friction patterns, and in turn basal processes that are not currently represented in either model, are among the most important factors for the 2012 acceleration.

Highly elongated bubbles are sometimes observed in ice-sheet ice. Elongation is favored by rapid ice deformation, and opposed by diffusive processes. We use simple models to show that vapor transport dominates diffusion except possibly very close to the melting point, and that latent-heat effects are insignificant. Elongation is favored by larger bubbles at pore close-off, but is nearly independent of bubble compression below close-off. The simple presence of highly elongated bubbles indicates only that a critical ice-strain rate has been exceeded for significant time, and provides no information on possible disruption of stratigraphic continuity by ice deformation.

The debris-rich ice from the bottom 6 m of the 82 m deep CAROLINE (Coastal Antarctic Record of Last Interglacial Natural Environment) ice core reaching bedrock, and from five 2 m long surface cores at Moraine Prudhomme in Terre Adélie (Antarctica) is described and compared to debris-laden ice from the core-drilling site DIO. Isotopic, total-gas content, CO2 concentration and SEM investigations of embedded particles, together with ice textures and fabrics, rule out “pressure-melting” regelation around bed obstacles or “freezing-on” as possible mechanisms for the debris entrainment at the ice-bedrock interface. It is suggested that the debris entrapment by purely mechanical means (e.g. shearing) is an efficient process in forming basal ice layers (BIL) at sub-freezing temperatures. This process might be dominant at the margin of the Antarctic ice sheet where no ice shelf exists and where a ramp terminus or a buttressing coastal relief induces compressive flow.

In order to assess the effect of non-local stress transferral through the ice cover empirically, a linear viscous model (employing both bulk and shear viscosities) is used to predict drift-rates for one Soviet and two U.S. drifting stations over the time period May 1962 to April 1964. The predictions, based on available atmospheric pressure and ocean-current data, are compared to free-drift results and to observed values. The empirical viscosity values giving the best fit to observations show a pronounced seasonal variation that correlates well with the growth rate of thin ice. Drift predictions, especially long-term net drift results, show drift magnitudes and turning angles to be simulated significantly better by a viscous model than by a free-drift model. The effects of steady currents are shown to be small for velocities averaged over days but significant for averages over years.

Under the potential to reconstruct the past climatic and atmospheric conditions from a deep ice core in the coastal Antarctic site (Styx Glacier), an 8.84 m long firn core (73°50.975′ S, 163°41.640′ E; 1623 m a.s.l.) was initially studied to propose a reliable age scale for the local estimation of snow accumulation rate. The seasonal variations of δ18O, methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and non-sea-salt sulfate (nssSO42–) were used for the firn core dating and revealed 25 annual peaks (from 1990 to 2014) with volcanic sulfate signal. The observed declining trend in annual accumulation rate with a mean value of 146 ± 60 kg m–2 a–1 is likely to be linked to the changes of sea-ice extent in the Ross Sea region. Moreover, the temporal variation of the annual mean δ18O, an annual flux of MSA and nssSO42– also likely to be under the influence of ice-covered and open water area. This study suggests a potential to recover past changes in an oceanic environment and will be useful for the interpretation of the long ice core drilled at the same site.

Constant-load creep tests were performed at −10°C at various compressive stresses from 0.05 to 0.75 MPa on specimens taken every 10 m along a firn core extracted at Summit, Greenland in June 2017. The microstructures before and after creep testing were examined using both X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) and optical images from thin sections. An Andrade-like equation was used to describe the primary creep behavior and yielded the time exponent k of 0.17–0.76. The onset of secondary creep occurred at strains of ~0.5–3% but was sometimes not observed at all in shallow firn specimens and at stresses ⩽0.43 MPa even for strain up to 32%. For the 50–80 m firn crept at stresses ⩾0.55 MPa, secondary creep occurred at strains of 2.6 ± 0.28%, and the stress exponent, n, in Glen's law, was found to range from 4.1 to 4.6, similar to those observed for fully dense ice. Micro-CT observations of crept specimens showed that in most cases, the specific surface area, the total porosity and the structure model index decreased, while the structure thickness increased with increasing density. These microstructural characteristics are consistent with the densification of the firn. Optical images from thin sections showed that recrystallization occurred in some specimens that had undergone secondary creep.

The treatments by Nye and Kamb of glacier sliding over a wavy bed with small slope, which assume the ice to be approximated by a Newtonian fluid of high viscosity, are complemented by the inclusion of the glacier depth and the inclination of the bed to the horizontal. The driving force of the motion, gravity, is therefore present in the flow equations and defines immediately the mean drag on the bed. A geothermal heal flux is also included in order to estimate its possible effect on the flow. A complex variable method is used to determine the velocity and temperature fields to second order in the bed slope. These fields satisfy the zero shear traction and pressure-melting-regelation conditions to the same order on the actual bed profile. It is the balance of the second-order term which determines explicitly the (zero order) basal-sliding velocity and surface velocity in terms of the geometry and physical properties of both ice and bed. An explicit solution is illustrated for a sinusoidal bed. and a simple criterion for the onset of cavitation is obtained.

At places with an annual mean temperature lower than −20°C on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the temperature at a depth of 10 m is close to the annual mean at the surface and at the level of the meteorological shelter. With temperatures higher than about −35°C the size and sign of the différences vary. With lower temperatures the 10 m temperature becomes increasingly lower than the air temperature, at the coldest Antarctic station, “Plateau”, by nearly 4 deg.

Field tests have been developed to measure the shear and tensile strengths of large volumes of snow. Basal shear strengths were measured across and down some slabs of snow, giving highly variable strengths. These measurements support the idea that the basal region of an avalanche may contain zones where the basal shear strength exceeded the gravitational shear stress (i.e. pinning areas) with weak zones between (deficit areas) where the shear strength was less than the gravitational shear stress. The slab tensile stresses induced by these deficit areas would become high if either the deficit length (down-slope) was large, or the deficit itself was large. Measurements of tensile strengths of slabs above weak layers, together with the down-slope gravitational stress of a snow slab, suggest that deficit lengths of only several metres are often sufficient to cause a local tensile failure. In some cases, this local failure may propagate across the remainder of the slope (depending on the pinning distribution) and cause an avalanche. We propose that the maximum local deficit, rather than the mean slope deficit of basal shear stress, and the maximum length of the local deficit, are the first important parameters to consider when evaluating slope stability in the field, since the magnitude of these factors determine the probability of a local tensile failure.