Short- and long-wave radiation on variously oriented vertical surfaces, direct solar radiation, global radiation, and long–wave radiation on a horizontal surface were measured on Lewis Glacier, Mount Kenya, at 4800 m. For the orientation of vertical surfaces, the following azimuths were selected: 45°, facing the steep slope of the upper glacier; 135°, facing a rock ridge and some glacier surface in the foreground; 225°, facing down–glacier towards the Teleki valley with open sky occupying much of the view; and 315°, directed towards the steep south-east face of the Nelion peak.

The horizontal components of diffuse short-wave radiation reach a magnitude comparable to those of direct radiation. As a result of contrastingly different albedos of natural surfaces, the horizontal component of diffuse short–wave radiation is particularly large from the direction of the upper glacier, with values around 330–500 W m−2, and smallest from the direction of the rock face of Nelion peak, where values are around 150–330 W m−2. Long–wave radiation seems enhanced from the direction of the Nelion face, and reduced from the azimuth of the upper glacier, thus apparently reflecting differences in emissivity and temperature.

The sub-kilometre scale distribution of snow depth on Arctic sea ice impacts atmosphere-ice fluxes of energy and mass, and is of importance for satellite estimates of sea-ice thickness from both radar and lidar altimeters. While information about the mean of this distribution is increasingly available from modelling and remote sensing, the full distribution cannot yet be resolved. We analyse 33 539 snow depth measurements from 499 transects taken at Soviet drifting stations between 1955 and 1991 and derive a simple statistical distribution for snow depth over multi-year ice as a function of only the mean snow depth. We then evaluate this snow depth distribution against snow depth transects that span first-year ice to multiyear ice from the MOSAiC, SHEBA and AMSR-Ice field campaigns. Because the distribution can be generated using only the mean snow depth, it can be used in the downscaling of several existing snow depth products for use in flux modelling and altimetry studies.

The seaward edge of the Ross Ice Shelf advanced northward at a minimum average velocity of 0.8 km a–1 between 1962 and 1985. That advance approximated velocities that have been obtained from glaciological data, indicating little recent wastage by iceberg calving. West of long. 178° E., the ice shelf has attained its most northerly position in the past 145 years, and has not experienced a major calving episode for at least 75 years. Since 1841 the ice-front position has advanced and retreated within a zone from about lat. 77° 10’S. (near long. 171° E.) to lat. 78° 40’ S. (near long. 164° W.). The central ice front is now farthest south but has the highest advance rate. Calving may occur at more frequent intervals in that sector, which also overlies the warmest ocean currents that flow into the sub-ice-shelf cavity. Available information on ice-shelf advance, thickness, spreading rate, and surface accumulation indicates a basal melting rate around 3 m a–1 near the ice front. These data and independent estimates imply that basal melting is nearly as large a factor as iceberg calving in maintaining the ice-shelf mass balance. In recent years, the Ross, Ronne, and Filchner Ice Shelves have contributed few icebergs to the Southern Ocean, while projections from a contemporaneous iceberg census are that circumpolar calving alone may exceed accumulation on the ice sheet. Large-scale ice-shelf calving may have preceded historical sightings of increased numbers of icebergs at sea.

A tunnel was excavated in Urumqi Glacier No. 1, at the Tianshan Glaciological Station. Ice temperature, ice displacement, deformation, and basal sliding, etc. were observed at regular intervals. It is shown that the temperature near the glacier bed is close to the melting point and that the largest proportion of the overall glacier motion is within the lowermost ice layers. The glacier ice is in a state of compression. The maximum shear strain increases towards the entrance of the tunnel, corresponding to the change in slope of the ice surface, and also towards the bedrock.

The average three-dimensional coordination number, n3, is an important measure of firn structure. The value of n3 can be estimated from n2, the average measured two-dimensional coordination number, and from a function, Γ, that depends only on the ratio of average bond radius to grain radius in the sample. This method is easy to apply and does not require the use of unknown shape factors or tunable parameters.

Observations of the snow depth at 21 sites at Resolute were made twice weekly during the winter of 1957–58. As a result of these observations, and of other observations on snow made for the National Research Council, it is shown that the snow depth and the water content of the snow did not continue to increase during the winter as the snow fell. Rather the strong winds eroded the snow surface and the increase in depth was irregular and relatively slow. Furthermore, the observations on the density of the snow cover lead to the conclusion that attempts to measure the density in similar regions with an accuracy greater than ± 0.05 g. cm.−3 are not warranted.

The nature of candle ice, stratified ice and ice of radial structure observable on ice island t-3 was investigated. Cores were drilled through the ice island at two sites. Crystallographic examination, and visco-clastic and chlorinity measurements, were made all along the cores. Results indicate that the ice body of t-3 is composed of three strata; the stratum above a heavy dirt layer is composed of iced firn which shows a granular nature with crystalline facets; that below the dirt layer is “basement ice”; and at the bottom is a sea-ice layer 1.8 m. thick. The basement ice is subdivided into four strata. Petrographic studies of dirt samples obtained from the surface and from the ice cores were carried out by an X-ray diffraction method; from the results, the dirt is thought to be dust of Precambrian granite or gneiss, which are the prevailing rocks in Ellesmere Island. The structure of t-3 was inferred from assumptions based on the data obtained from the core drillings at the two sites.

The mechanical behaviour for the geometrical properties of two-dimensional deformation has been investigated. The Mohr formulation of failure, which is based on the concept of slip at the plane of weakness, is used in this study. It is shown that alteration of the shear stress τn at the plane of weakness requires self-similarity of features in deformation patterns. A general relationship between the angle of internal friction and the breaking angle of deformation patterns is derived. Using imagery data, this relationship is used to find the angle of internal friction from selected sea-ice deformation patterns. The value obtained for this angle is Φ = 15° ± 2° for deformation on a scale from 100 m to 100 km.

Analyses of the first aircraft multi-frequency, Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired over the southwestern Greenland ice sheet are presented. Data were collected on 31 August 1989 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory SAR using the NASA DC-8 aircraft. Along with curvilinear patterns associated with large-scale morphologic features such as crevasses, lakes and streams, frequency and polarization dependencies are observed in the P-, L-and C-band image products. Model calculations that include firn grain-size and volumetric water content suggest that tonal variations in and between the images are attributable to large-scale variations in the snow-and ice-surface characteristics, especially snow wetness. In particular, systematic trends in back-scatter strength observed at C-band across regions of changing snow wetness are suggestive of a capability to delineate boundaries between snow facies. Ice lenses and ice pipes are the speculated cause for similar trends in P-band back-scatter. Finally, comparison between SEASAT SAR data collected in 1978 and these airborne data collected in 1989 indicate a remarkable stability of surface patterns associated with the locations of supraglacial lake and stream systems.

We developed a multi-frequency, multi-Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning instrument optimized for autonomous applications in the cryosphere. At lower power requirements and a fraction of the cost and weight compared to commercially available options, this instrument simplifies field usage and associated logistics. In this paper, we assess several baseline aspects of performance in a polar environment relative to geodetic receivers commonly used for glaciological applications. Evaluations of precision and relative accuracy of positioning show millimeter to centimeter-level (‘geodetic-grade’) quality of this instrument, making it a competitive alternative for GNSS glaciological and geophysical applications such as monitoring surface elevation change and ice flow. An array of these instruments, tested in the field on the Greenland Ice Sheet, also demonstrated robustness throughout the polar winter and met power and reliability requirements.

Measurements made on a temperate glacier within 200 m of its wedge-shaped terminus cannot be interpreted as simple laminar flow. Instead they are fully explained by a model based on the nonlinear (n ≈ 3) Glen flow law that superposes longitudinal strain rate and simple shearing.

Problems concerning natural-hazard mapping have been discussed by the Norges Geotekniske Institutt in pilot projects sponsored by the National Fund for Natural Disaster Assistance. Hazard-registration maps, geomorphic hazard maps and hazard-zoning maps are defined. Hazard-zoning maps are preferable in land-use planning. Both survey maps (1 : 50000) and detailed maps (1:5000) are of interest. A survey map (c. 600 km2) would be mainly based on airphoto interpretation and could be prepared in about 150 h. Detailed mapping is more time consuming and should be limited to development areas.

Mapping of “marine deposits” and “other areas” are handled by separate groups, mainly because of differences in technical and professional problems. This gives rise to two parallel series of survey maps and detailed maps.

The proposed programmes for survey mapping states that 80% of the marine areas should be evaluated in 5 years (1980-84), and that one-third of the country should be examined for rockfalls, rock slides, and snow avalanches in 10 years. Other hazard types are impossible to identify by survey mapping. There is a rising demand for detailed maps but as yet there has been no research project to standardize methods.

The hazard maps are intended primarily to be an aid in land-use planning.

Thermal drilling and deep ice-temperature measurements along a flow line in a surge area of the Barnes Ice Cap, Baffin Island, N.W.T., Canada revealed a layer of basal temperate ice 30 m thick. Marginal areas were determined to be frozen to bedrock and geothermal heat flow estimated to be 1.02 μcal/cm2s (42 mW/m2).

Sub-surface melt pools were discovered during construction of an airfield located on glacier ice in the western part of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The melt pools occur beneath areas of blue glacier ice and they are impossible to detect by visual examination. They vary in size and shape but are usually 1.0 to 1.5 m deep and span circular areas 10 to 15 m in diameter. Sub-surface melting starts in mid-December at depths of 40 cm or more and it progresses until late January when refreezing begins. The ice cover over melt pools may thin to as little as 7 cm and this creates a serious hazard to aircraft operations.

The melt pools are caused by the greenhouse effect of intense solar radiation, low albedo of the blue glacier ice and heat absorption by rock particles and dust. The high-albedo layer of chipped ice and powdered ice that was produced during runway construction was completely successful in preventing sub-surface melting. The thickness of this protective layer appeared to be of little importance, providing it exceeded 3 cm.

Position fixes made at the British Antarctic Survey station, Halley, on the Brunt Ice Shelf are considered for the period 1968–82. These show an initial westward velocity of approximately 400 ma−1 rising to over 700 m a−1 by the end of the period. The data are well fitted by two straight lines. The first for 1968–71 has a slope 430 m a−1 in agreement with that found by Thomas (1973) for the period up to 1968. The second for 1972–83 has a slope 740 ma −1, a large increase sustained for up to 10 years.

A brief introduction to neutron scattering is given with special emphasis on the difference between coherent and incoherent contributions. The following report of recent work on ice contains the determination and verification of some phonon dispersion curves, and outlines the state of the art on diffuse scattering due to the proton disorder. Results on “two-dimensional ice” in copper formate tetrahydrate are of great interest as this system exhibits a phase transformation below which the protons are ordered. The study of rotational diffusion and of the tunnel splitting of the rotational ground state of molecules which contain protons is discussed in some detail. These investigations are now possible with very high energy resolution ΔE ≈ 5 × 10-8 eV (4 • 10-4 cm- 1 or 12 MHz).

40Ar/39Ar ages of most single ice-ratted amphiboles from Heinrich layer 2 (H2) from a core in the Labrador Sea, a core in the eastern North Atlantic and a core in the western North Atlantic range from 1600 to 2000 Ma. This range is identical to that for K/Ar ages from the Churchill province of the Canadian Shield that outcrops at Hudson Strait and forms the basement of the northern part of Hudson Bay. The ambient glacial sediment includes some younger and older grains derived from Paleozoic, Mesoproterozoic and Archean sources, but still the majority of the amphiboles have ages in the 1600–2000 Ma interval. The Ca/K ratios of these 1600–2000 Ma old amphiboles, however, have a bimodal distribution in contrast with the uniformity of the Ca/K ratios of H2 amphiboles. This indicates that 1600–2000 Ma old amphiboles of the ambient sediment were derived from an additional Early Proterozoic source besides Churchill province. In H2, Churchill-derived grains constitute 20–40% of the ice-rafted debris (IRD). The fraction in the ambient glacial sediment is 65–80%. Results presented here are consistent with the hypothesis that Heinrich events were produced by a sudden intensification of the iceberg discharge through Hudson Strait that mixed, in the North Atlantic, with icebergs that continued to calve from other ice sheets. The shift from mixed sources in the background sediment to a large dominance of Churchill province grains in H2 indicates that, even if calving of other ice sheets intensified during the Heinrich episode, the increase in the iceberg discharge via Hudson Strait from the Hudson Bay drainage basin of the Laurentide ice sheet was by far the largest.

A ridge of drift emerging from the snout of Flatisen resembles a small esker. It originates in a subglacial tunnel. The source of the material forming the ridge was a number of thrust planes exposed in the sides and roof of the tunnel. The main features of the tunnel and the ridge are described and the mode of formation of the ridge suggested.