Recent observations of glacier sliding at temperatures below the melting point are discussed. It is pointed out that these observations can be simply explained by including solid friction in the sliding law. Furthermore, we re-emphasize the point that such sub-temperate sliding has an important effect on the basal boundary conditions which should be applied in model studies of ice sheets and glaciers.

Large, single ice crystals containing nо air bubbles and free of both small-angle grain boundaries and visible stress birefringence can be grown using a very simple growth chamber within a temperature-controlled, outer enclosure. The method relies upon the spontaneous formation of an ice crystal with its с axis accurately normal to a free, slightly supercooled, water surface.

The annual layer thickness profiles along three 400 m ice cores are transferred into accumulation-rate records. A linear decrease of 3±2% per millenium is found in mid-Greenland. Intermediate-term (periods longer than 120 years) deviations from the linear trend lines are less than 5% in mid-Greenland but reach 11% at Dye 3 around A.D. 1700 and 1400. Short-term (periods between 120 and 30 years) oscillations are generally in phase at Milcent and Crête.

A supraglacial debris layer controls energy transfer to the ice surface and moderates ice ablation on debris-covered glaciers. Measurements of vertical temperature profiles within the debris enables the estimation of thermal diffusivities and sub-debris ablation rates. We have measured the debris-layer temperature profiles at 16 locations on Satopanth Glacier (central Himalaya) during the ablation seasons of 2016 and 2017. Debris temperature profile data are typically analysed using a finite-difference method, assuming that the debris layer is a homogeneous one-dimensional thermal conductor. We introduce three more methods for analysing such data that approximate the debris layer as either a single or a two-layered conductor. We analyse the performance of all four methods using synthetic experiments and by comparing the estimated ablation rates with in situ glaciological observations. Our analysis shows that the temperature measurements obtained at equispaced sensors and analysed with a two-layered model improve the accuracy of the estimated thermal diffusivity and sub-debris ablation rate. The accuracy of the ablation rate estimates is comparable to that of the in situ observations. We argue that measuring the temperature profile is a convenient and reliable method to estimate seasonal to sub-seasonal variations of ablation rates in the thickly debris-covered parts of glaciers.

Fluidized snow was produced in a cold laboratory and its viscosity and heat transfer were studied. The viscosity of the fluidized snow was measured with a modified Stormer-type viscometer. It was found that the apparent viscosity decreased with increasing air velocity and decreasing particle diameter. Two mechanisms were suggested as producing the viscosity of the fluidized snow on the basis of the plot of the viscosity against the reciprocal of the air velocity.

The heat-transfer coefficient was obtained by measuring the temperature of a cooled brass sphere suspended in the fluidized snow. The heat-transfer coefficient in the fluidized snow was three or four times larger than that in an air flow containing no snow particles. The increase was attributed to the enhanced turbulence of air flow and the collision of snow particles; the contribution of the latter was estimated to be 80 to 90% of the total increase due to the fluidization of snow. These results were also confirmed in an artificial blowing snow produced in a cold horizontal wind-tunnel by measuring the heat-transfer coefficient, wind velocity, and drift density.

This work investigates the deformation of ice under deviatoric stresses and confining pressures expected during ice–structure interaction. Granular ice was tested under a range of confining pressures (5–60 MPa) and deviatoric stresses (up to 25 MPa), with sample temperatures between –8° and –10°C. Samples were deformed to increasing end-levels of axial strain, and were thin-sectioned and photographed immediately following testing.

At all confinement levels, the original texture of the sample is completely transformed within the first 10–15% strain, to a fine-grained matrix with a few larger, isolated grains. At low confinements, grain-size reduction is associated with extensive microcracking. At high confinements, few cracks are observed. Observations suggest that microcracking, melting and recrystallization are active at all levels of confinement, though the relative importance of each depends on the confinement, stress and accumulated strain.

Deviatoric stress is a strong factor in controlling the creep, reflected in both the time required for the sample to reach accelerated creep and the tertiary creep rate itself. Two exceptions to this pattern were noted. First, some samples experienced strain localization and eventual rupture. These specimens tended to have higher creep rates even in the initial stages of strain. Second, prior damage resulted in rapid softening compared with the behavior of undamaged specimens. However, when strain rates are compared among all samples at a given level of cumulative axial strain, the creep behavior obeys a power law over the whole range of strain levels tested. Effective viscosity decreased from 107.8 to l06.4 MPa−n s within the first 10% strain, during which the most substantial microstructural changes occurred, and then stayed relatively stable. The stress exponent, n, remained within the range 4.0–4.6.

The dominant deformation mechanism appears to depend strongly on confining pressure (cracking at low pressure and dynamic recrystallization at high pressure). Creep rates at high confinement appear to increase relative to those at intermediate confinement, but the influence of temperature must be addressed further.

The surface spectral albedo was measured over coastal landfast sea ice in Prydz Bay (off Zhongshan Station), East Antarctica from 5 October to 26 November of 2016. The mean albedo decreased from late-spring to early-summer, mainly responding to the change in surface conditions from dry (phase I) to wet (phase II). The evolution of the albedo was strongly influenced by the surface conditions, with alternation of frequent snowfall events and katabatic wind that induce snow blowing at the surface. The two phases and day-to-day albedo variability were more pronounced in the near-infrared albedo wavelengths than in the visible ones, as the near-infrared photons are more sensitive to snow metamorphism, and to changes in the uppermost millimeters and water content of the surface. The albedo diurnal cycle during clear sky conditions was asymmetric with respect to noon, decreasing from morning to evening over full and patchy snow cover, and decreasing more rapidly in the morning over bare ice. We conclude that snow and ice metamorphism and surface melting dominated over the solar elevation angle dependency in shaping the albedo evolution. However, we realize that more detailed surface observations are needed to clarify and quantify the role of the various surface processes.

The failure to detect experimentally a glide direction in the ice crystal is satisfactorily explained by assuming that the crystal glides simultaneously in three symmetry-equivalent directions with a response to the shear stress component in each direction that is the same as that observed for the crystal as a whole or for polycrystalline aggregates—the typical non-linear, power-type flow law. A hexagonal crystal responding to stress by this type of “non-linear crystal viscosity” behaves very differently from a tetragonal one. For a tetragonal crystal, the glide directions are well defined in the response of the crystal if the power-flow-law exponent n exceeds n ~ 1·5, whereas for a hexagonal crystal a well-defined glide direction can be observed only if n > c. 5. The response of a hexagonal crystal is entirely independent of a-axis orientation if n = 3 exactly. For 3 < n < c. 5 the true glide direction should be weakly apparent, whereas for 1 < n < 3 the crystal should show a response weakly suggestive of preferred glide in a direction perpendicular to the true glide direction. In the observed range of n values for ice, 2 < n < 4, the expected response to simultaneous glide differs so slightly from the hitherto-postulated a-axis-independent, “non-crystallographic” glide as to be practically undetectable experimentally. This circumstance makes it possible to identify <>as the glide direction, from structural considerations alone, and to accommodate the plastic properties of the ice crystal into the modern concepts of crystal plasticity. It may be expected that hexagonal close packed and face-centred cubic metals at high temperatures, in steady state creep, will show translation gliding without well-defined glide directions.

The effects of frictional tangential traction combined with regelation on the basal sliding of a temperate glacier down an inclined wavy bed are examined. Two friction models are treated. First, a Coulomb law model having the assumptions that sliding occurs everywhere and that the tangential traction is proportional to the normal pressure. Secondly, a velocity power law in which the tangential traction is proportional to a power of the slip velocity. The ice motion is approximated by steady slow Newtonian flow and the bed undulation about a mean bed-line has a maximum slope ∊ ≪I. Flow solutions are constructed as perturbations (in powers off ∈) of the plane laminar flow corresponding to non-slip on the mean bed-line assuming that the ice remains everywhere in contact with the bed; that is, no cavitation takes place. If the normal traction is predicted to be tensile over part of the bed, implying that cavitation has occurred, then a new solution is needed in which the ice base over cavities is traction-free. Since the cavity sections and profile of the free ice base are then part of the overall solution, an intricate mixed boundary-value problem is set up for the flow and the present analysis is inadequate.

For a sinusoidal bed the perfect-slip (zero tangential traction) solution predicts compressive normal traction everywhere on the bed provided that the mean bed-line inclination α (to the horizontal) is less than a critical value αe which is of order ε. For greater values of α including a range of order ∊, the normal traction is tensile on some parts of the bed, and a solution with cavitation is needed. If the tensile sections are relatively small it is expected that the resulting cavitation will not change the overall solution significantly. However, the Coulomb friction solution has extensive zones of tensile traction for all values of α, so that extensive cavitation would occur. In contrast, the velocity-power friction solution has compressive traction everywhere on the bed for α ⩽αe=0(I) provided that the ice depth is not too large, and also for deep glaciers for α ⩽αe=O∊ Furthermore, the predicted basal sliding velocity varies much less with the length scale of the bed undulation than in the perfect-slip solution, and is smaller.

This article aims to give a comprehensive view of the distribution patterns for natural and artifical radionuclides over Antarctica. We focus this study on 137Cs, 210Pb and tritium. Applying various statistical methods, we show that the deposition of radionuclides reveals a structured distribution, although local drift redistribution and the snow-surface roughness disturb the representativeness of samples and produce a “noise” effect. The deposition of 137Cs over Antarctica (885 TBq) represents 0.09% of the total deposition of this radionuclide in the world and the correlation between 137Cs fluxes and accumulation shows two sub-populations. For the stations with a mean annual temperature above −21° C, a strong correlation is found, whereas the correlation is lower for locations with temperatures below −21° C. The flux of 210Pb varies from 0.9 to 8.2 Bq m −1 a−1 with values strongly correlated with the accumulation and a well-defined spatial structure. The same mechanism governs the deposition of artificial and natural tritium but it clearly differs from that of other radionuclides associated with particulate material. The “dry fall-out” accounts for between 60 and 80% of the total fall-out for the artificial radionuclides and around 40% for 210Pb. This difference is likely related to a tropospheric fraction for 210Pb. Despite its isolated location, the radioactive fall-out of artificial long-lived radionuclides over Antarctica has been ten times greater than for natural radionuclides.

Debris-covered glaciers are an important component of the mountain cryosphere and influence the hydrological contribution of glacierized basins to downstream rivers. This study examines the potential to make estimates of debris thickness, a critical variable to calculate the sub-debris melt, using ground-based thermal infrared radiometry (TIR) images. Over four days in August 2019, a ground-based, time-lapse TIR digital imaging radiometer recorded sequential thermal imagery of a debris-covered region of Peyto Glacier, Canadian Rockies, in conjunction with 44 manual excavations of debris thickness ranging from 10 to 110 cm, and concurrent meteorological observations. Inferring the correlation between measured debris thickness and TIR surface temperature as a base, the effectiveness of linear and exponential regression models for debris thickness estimation from surface temperature was explored. Optimal model performance (R2 of 0.7, RMSE of 10.3 cm) was obtained with a linear model applied to measurements taken on clear nights just before sunrise, but strong model performances were also obtained under complete cloud cover during daytime or nighttime with an exponential model. This work presents insights into the use of surface temperature and TIR observations to estimate debris thickness and gain knowledge of the state of debris-covered glacial ice and its potential hydrological contribution.

“Whisky Glacier” on James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula, comprises a névé and clean ice trunk surrounded by an extensive area of debris-covered ice resembling a rock glacier. The debris-free trunk of the glacier abuts abruptly against the broad, totally debris-covered tongue at a number of concentric zones where debris-laden beds crop out at the surface in a manner similar to the “inner moraine” formations of many polar glaciers.

Ice structures and foliation suggest that “Whisky Glacier” is a polythermal glacier which is wet-based under the debris-free zone, and dry-based under the debris-covered zone. It is surmised that the glacier sole crosses the freezing front close to where the basal debris beds are upwarped towards the surface. Here, basal water is confined, and freezes to the under side of the glacier in thick beds of regelation ice which are uplifted to the surface along with the debris-laden beds. Ablation losses effectively cease beneath the blanket of debris covering the tongue.

The transition from wet-based to dry-based conditions at the glacier sole is a powerful mechanism for entraining debris into a glacier and, in the case of “Whisky Glacier”, for lifting debris to the surface. It is suggested that this may be a mechanism for forming some polar rock glaciers.

A series of minor moraine ridges lying on a lodgement till surface in front of the glacier Austre Okstindbreen are described. The available chronological control suggests that from 1957 through to 1970 a new ridge was formed each winter and that this pattern of annual production is probably also applicable to the period back to circa 1950. During the winter months of 1970/71 and 1971/72 the glacier advanced and deformed the ice cover of a marginal lake which now isolates the till areas from the ice margin. It is concluded that the ridges are true “annual” moraines formed primarily by ice push although the operation of a squeeze process during their genesis is not rejected.

The 210Pb(210Po) method has for the first time been successfully applied for dating cold alpine firn/ice cores. The mean accumulation rate on Grenzgletscher near Colle Gnifetti (Switzerland, altitude 4 450 m) is found to be 37 cm year−1 and 32 cm year−1 for the two ice cores drilled down to 32 m and 65 m in 1976 and 1977, respectively. The surface activity amounts to 4 dpm kg−1 ice. It is shown that a good agreement between the data of the two ice cores is reached with a model taking into account an effect of decreasing annual ice layers with depth. With this thin-out correction, the accumulation rate in the 1977 core increases to 39 cm year−1.

A deformation mechanism map for pure polycrystalline ice of 2 mm grain diameter is constructed, New sub-regions in the dislocation glide region are proposed: dislocation glide with crack formation, dislocation creep, and fracture at high stresses above about 1 MPa. The boundary between the dislocation creep and DGC regions is determined by the onset of cleavage cracks due to piled-up dislocations near grain boundaries. The fracture region is that area of the map where fracture occurs readily when the ice is subjected to a rapid deformation rate exceeding 10-3 s-1. Experimental results of the stress dependence of the compressive deformation rate of polycrystalline ice are compared with the map. The effect of changes in the creep activation energy near the melting point is discussed together with those of other factors.

Very few studies have emphasized the effects of high-pressure sintering on snow density evolution, even though snow as a type of engineering material is widely used in construction engineering in cold regions for snow pavement, snow runway and polar infrastructure. This study presents new experimental results of snow densification under high pressures of up to 100 MPa for a temperature range from −3.5 to −17.3°C and uniaxial compression at the temperature of −10°C and constant strain rates from 5 × 10−4 to 10−1 s−1. Results reveal that density evolution of snow to ice under high-pressure sintering can be achieved in a wide temperature range within a duration as short as 5 min. The compressive strength of snow-sintered ice was ~1.2–2.2 times as large as that of water-frozen ice reported by previous work. The orthogonal experiment showed that pressure is a more significant factor affecting the final density in comparison with sintering temperature and time. The increased rates of ice fabrication, low limitations on temperature and reliable sintered snow strength indicate that snow-ice engineering, such as airport construction in Greenland and Antarctica, can be improved by high-pressure sintering of snow to overcome the harsh environment.

Compressive strain-rates in discrete layers of a sub-alpine snow cover are analyzed. Individual layers are identified according to density and the dominant type of metamorphism which contributed to their formation. Data were collected during four winter seasons at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) snow-study site (3 400 m), Red Mountain Pass, south-western Colorado, U.S.A. At average densities of less than 250 kg m₋3 the influence of metamorphism on strain-rate is not apparent. However, at densities greater than 250 kg m₋3, two separate relationships emerge for strain as a function of crystal type and density. While two adjacent layers may exhibit comparable densities, a layer of sintered, fine grained (ET) snow indicates a strain-rate approximately one order of magnitude greater than an adjacent layer of cohesionless, coarse-grained (TG) snow.

The laws of wind-speed variation with height and their modification with stability are discussed and applied to observations in the first 2 m. over various cold surfaces. An exponential law is superior save in frequent, near-neutral conditions, but the logarithmic law is superior in neutral and again in really stable conditions. A power law and a logarithmic-plus-linear law give the best fit with the data only at moderate stabilities. A logarithmic-plus-cubic law of wind speed is evolved that permits suppression of linear additions to the logarithmic law at two distinct stabilities. A power form of variation of Richardson number with height is found and compared with a linear form. The former is applied with the logarithmicplus-cubic law to the observed data, though with limited success. Eddy-viscosity coefficients for the different laws are compared.