Modified versions of in situ strength tests previously applied to metamorphosed snow were developed to measure the mechanical properties of newly fallen snow during storm periods. A large drop-cone penetrometer, protected from the wind by an aluminum shell, was used to determine snow “hardness”. A lightweight model of the Haefeli ram penetrometer measured “ram numbers”. Shear strengths were obtained from large, light-weight frames. Some preliminary tests were made with a shear vane driven by a torque wrench. A new technique was devised for measuring tensile strength whereby a cantilever beam of snow is undercut until it fails under its own weight. Comparisons between the cantilever test and the shear-frame test show high ratios for tensile to shear strength. Cantilever strength plotted against density shows an order of magnitude variation in strength at all densities.

A new portable device for ice-core drilling, specially designed for thin tephra-layer sampling, was tested on the South Shetland glaciers during the 1994-95 Antarctic summer. The machine is based on a combination of the standard paleomagnetism drilling machine and a specially built drill-bit designed for ice-coring.

A finite-difference numerical model is used to simulate the temperature profile at the center of an ice sheet throughout the course of a glaciation. The ice sheet is gradually built to a thickness of 3000 m over about 10 000 years, starting on permafrost. A geothermal heat flux is applied at large depth. For an initial surface temperature of –12.5°C, our model shows that basal melting occurs 72000 years after the onset of the glaciation. The important parameters determining the basal temperatures are the initial temperature of the ice and substrate, the rate of downward advection of cold ice and, to a lesser extent, the thickness of the ice sheet. The growth history of the ice sheet does not significantly influence the time at which basal melting occurs. Our results show the possibility that the central parts of the continental ice sheets were cold-based for a significant part of their existence. Heating due to the geothermal heat flux cannot account for basal melting during most or all of a glacial cycle. These results may help to explain the existence of preserved land forms under the ice sheets.

Monocrystals and bicrystals of ice have been creep tested at temperatures between 4 and — 30°C. The bicrystals had a single grain boundary running parallel to the tensile axis; this configuration inhibited grain-boundary slip between the two grains. The creep tests, which were carried out at constant stress σ and temperature T, yielded data of strain ϵ for time elapsed since the start of the test. These data showed accelerating creep for both monocrystals and bicrystals at all strain levels. Strain-rates were derived at strains of 0.01, 0.05. and 0.10, and these rates were fitted to the expression

k is Boltzmann’s constant and E is the creep activation energy. Derived values of n were 1.9 for monocrystals and 2.9 for bicrystals. The creep activation energy was found to be 78 kJ/mol for monocrystals and 75 kJ/mol for bicrystals. The processes of creep deformation in mono-, bi- and polycrystals are discussed.

The supercooling of water in nature occurs more frequently than is generallyknown. It always takes place when still water is in process of being covered with thefirst ice needles. It is of even greater importance when ice formation takes place in running and turbulent water, in which case it represents the necessary conditions for the formation of frazil and anchor ice. The supercooling may be observed by a sensitive thermometer when the bulb is heated before being immersed in the water. The degree of supercooling of still water may be more than 1° C. in a thin surface layer as the author has demonstrated by measuring the temperature by a recording thermopile exposed to radiation from the surface. It is emphasized that the state of supercooling in water is a stable one, the formation of ice being dependent upon the existence of nuclei or solid boundary surfaces from which crystallization will start and from which liberated heat of solidification will flow. This process of thermal conduction needs time.

Forbes Glacier, one of the outlet ice streams from the Antarctic ice sheet, is located 20 km west of Mawson, Mac.Robertson Land, east Antarctica. In the uppermost part of the glacier near Casey Range, the velocity at the centre of the glacier is 59 m year−1 and the strain-rate at seven strain grids ranges from −6.7 to 6.7×10−3 year−1 on the surface of the glacier. The fabric types of this area are characterized by single-maximum and small-girdle fabrics. It is confirmed that the single-maximum fabric is an original pattern which changes gradually to a small girdle fabric about the maximum compressive axis in association with grain growth. The patterns predicted by Brace (1960) can be adapted to the small-girdle fabrics of this area.

The pattern of accumulation on the Devon Island ice cap is described. There is an area of minimum accumulation encircling the highest part of the ice cap and 100–200 m. below it. Below this zone, accumulation gradually increases to a maximum near the ice-cap edge. The overall pattern is related to snow transport by katabatic winds. There is a regional accumulation pattern of high accumulation (ca. 40.0 cm. water equivalent) in the south-east part of the ice cap and an area of low accumulation (ca. 11 0 cm. water equivalent) in the north-west. This east-south-east to west-north-west accumulation gradient is related to cyclonic activity to the east in Baffin Bay, and it is probably intensified by the presence of open water in the same area.

Observations on the spatial distribution and on the strain dependence of the crack density are given for cracks formed during compressive, unidirectional, constant-strain-rate deformation of columnar-grain ice. Specimens, in the grain-size range of about 2 9 mm, were strained at the nominal rates of 10−3, 10−4 and 10−5 s−1 at 10°C. The axis of hexagonal crystallographic symmetry of each specimen grain tended to be in the plane perpendicular to the long direction of the grains and to have a random orientation in that plane. For stress applied perpendicular to the long direction of the grains, the deformation was practically two-dimensional. It was found that the log-normal distribution function provided a good approximation to the strain dependence of the crack density. Statistical characteristics of the distribution had a maximum in the same range of strain rate as found for the strength of columnar-grain ice. Analysis of the spatial distribution of the cracks indicated some deviation from randomness for specimens of grain-size less than 5 mm and total strain less than 50 × 10−4. The observations provide further evidence that crack formation under the experimental conditions is a random process.

The englacial and subglacial drainage systems exert key controls on glacier dynamics. However, due to their inaccessibility, they are still only poorly understood and more detailed observations are important, particularly to validate and tune physical models describing their dynamics. By creating artificial glacier moulins – boreholes connected to the subglacial drainage system and supplied with water from surface streams – we present a novel method to monitor the evolution of an englacial hydrological system with high temporal resolution. Here, we use artificial moulins as representations for vertical, pressurised, englacial R-channels. From tracer and pressure measurements, we derive time series of the hydraulic gradient, discharge, flow speed and channel cross-sectional area. Using these, we compute the Darcy–Weisbach friction factor, obtaining values which increase from 0.1 to 13 within five days of channel evolution. Furthermore, we simulate the growth of the cross-sectional area using different temperature gradients. The comparison to our measurements largely supports the common assumption that the temperature follows the pressure melting point. The deviations from this behaviour are analysed using various heat transfer parameterisations to assess their applicability. Finally, we discuss how artificial moulins could be combined with glacier-wide tracer experiments to constrain parameters of subglacial drainage more precisely.

Compressive experiments were performed on square (160 mm × 160 mm) prismatic specimens of columnar-grained, S2 freshwater ice, biaxially loaded across the columns at −10°C. The work focused on brittle behavior, achieved by deforming the specimens at an applied strain rate of 4.5 ± 1.2 × 10 3s 1 in the direction of shortening. The results show that the specimen thickness (25–150 mm) has no detectable effect on the terminal failure strength of the ice. Likewise, the strength of the ice when loaded under proportional loading, where the minor stress varies during the test, was similar to that when loaded under a constant minor stress, implying that terminal failure depends only on the stress state and not on the path taken.

Meltwater influxes may partly explain the low oxygen-isotope values measured in the Dye 3 and Camp Century ire cores. This has led to speculation that Greenland may not have cooled during the Younger Dryas and underlined the need for independent checks of the oxygen-isotope record.

Using optimal control methods and heat-flow modeling, the author makes a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to distinguish the Younger Dryas event in the ice-sheet temperatures measured at Dye 3, south Greenland. The author discusses the prospects for attempting the same in the new Summit boreholes in central Greenland: how that will require more accurate temperature measurements, a coupled thermo-mechanical model and a refined uncertainty analysis. He concludes by discussing how borehole-temperature analysis may improve the climate histories determined from ire cores.

The positive degree-day (PDD) model provides a particularly simple approach to estimate surface melt from land ice based solely on air temperature. Here, we use a climate and snow pack simulation of the Greenland ice sheet (Modèle Atmosphérique Régional, MAR) as a reference, to analyze this scheme in three realizations that incorporate the sub-monthly temperature variability differently: (i) by local values, (ii) by local values that systematically overestimate the dampened variability associated with intense melting or (iii) by one constant value. Local calibrations reveal that incorporating local temperature variability, particularly resolving the dampened variability of melt areas, renders model parameters more temperature-dependent. This indicates that the negative feedback between surface melt and temperature variability introduces a non-linearity into the temperature – melt relation. To assess the skill of the individual realizations, we hindcast melt rates from MAR temperatures for each realization. For this purpose, we globally calibrate Greenland-wide, constant parameters. Realization (i) exhibits shortcomings in the spatial representation of surface melt unless temperature-dependent instead of constant parameters are calibrated. The other realizations perform comparatively well with constant parametrizations. The skill of the PDD model primarily depends, however, on the consistent calibration rather than on the specific representation of variability.

The Haut Glacier d’Arolla displays three medial moraines: an ablation-dominant moraine east of the glacier centre line, an ice-stream interaction moraine west of the glacier centre line, and a medial-lateral supraglacial moraine complex along the western margin of the glacier. The eastern moraine is formed by the emergence of coarse angular clasts from a series of short longitudinal debris bands 1 km from the glacier terminus; this debris is derived from rock falls at the glacier head-wall, and follows a low-level transport path through the glacier. The western moraine is formed partly by the direct fall of weathered debris on to the ice surface at a point 2.6 km from the snout, but it receives further increments of sediment from extensive longitudinal englacial debris bands developed from the convergence of two ice streams with lateral englacial debris septa. The medial-lateral moraine complex is formed largely by rock falls from the western valley wall, but is also nourished by a debris layer developed at the base of the small tributary Glacier de la Mitre. This layer crops out at the eastern margin of the re- sultant inset ice stream, and releases more rounded, abraded and comminuted rock fragments to supplement the surface debris cover of supraglacial origin.

The McCall Glacier is located in the Brooks Range, north Alaska. Most of its slopes have a northerly exposure with an inclination between 5°and 15°. The reduction in direct solar radiation owing to this northerly exposure is small (1.7%) in summer (ablation period, solar declination 20°), as the reduction in radiation received on a north slope during the noon hours is mostly compensated by the increase of energy during the “night” hours, as the sun does not set at that latitude in summer. With the shortening of the solar path, the decrease in direct solar radiation as compared with a horizontal surface becomes more important. At the equinox the loss is 24.8%, and at a solar declination of —10° (20 October or 24 February) even higher with 32.6%.

A further reduction in solar radiation is caused by the steep mountains, which surround the McCall Glacier. The duration of sunshine is reduced during the ablation period by nearly 40%, which, however, represents an energy loss of only 13.4%, as the screening effect of the mountains is most important with low solar angles, i.e. at times when the total energy received at the surface is small. The screening effect of the mountains becomes more severe with lower sun angles and shorter paths of the sun. During the equinox a loss in duration of 67.6%, and in energy of 55.7% is observed. For a solar declination of —10°, there is hardly any direct sunshine on the glacier at all. There is then a loss in duration of 93.6%, resulting in a loss of energy of 87.8%.

Together, these two components reduce the direct solar radiation by about 15% in the ablation period, 67% at the equinox and more than 90% at a solar declination of —10°.

The sequence of Pleistocene deposits in East Anglia is tabulated. The following aspects of the Pleistocene are discussed and summarized: boundaries of the Pleistocene, glacial and preglacial, ice advances, interglacials, glaciations, marine horizons, climate and periglacial features. Correlations are given between the Pleistocene deposits of East Anglia and the continent.

Both long and short-term snow ablation measurements usually contain errors when made with a simple ablation stake. Ablations measured over long periods for glacier regimen studies are subject to a settlement error in even dense snow, corrections for which may be made by simultaneous measurements with stakes of different lengths. For observation periods in the order of twenty-four hours or less, both mass loss and ice melt are often poorly represented by the simple product of mean bulk density and change in surface level. These quantities may be measured directly by successive determinations of bulk density and ice density profiles in the surface snow layer. Under certain favorable conditions, they may also be derived by observing directly the total and ice mass changes in a sampled area of the snow surface.