Previous models of ice–till deformation near subglacial channels or cavities neglect the fact that the motions of the two materials are coupled, and thus the interface between ice and till may not remain stationary. Here, we analyze in succession two models which address the effect of such coupling via specification of appropriate continuity conditions for stress and velocity across the interface. The modelled scenario is that of a shallow channel–cavity, with its long axis parallel to the principal ice-flow direction, overlying actively deforming till sediments. By applying asymptotic techniques, we investigate how the pattern and velocity of the creep flow depend generally on the ratio between the ice and till viscosities, and on the deforming-till thickness. A more sophisticated, non-linear rheology for till sediments is then introduced. It reveals that the two-way interaction between water percolation and deformation in the till will enhance the localization of sediment flow near the channel margins. The length scale over which transition of effective stress in the till takes place — from its relatively high, far-field value to the low, channel value — is found to depend critically on a dimensionless permeability parameter (Λ). In any case, coupled deformation causes sediment (and ice) flow towards the channel, subsidence of the ice–till interface just outside the channel, and extension of the area over which the ice is in contact with till. Apart from having direct implications for subglacial sediment transport, these results indicate that coupled deformation can contribute significantly to the spatial evolution of stress distribution under a glacier, and thus its incorporation into future sliding and drainage theories for a soft bed should be considered essential.

At Engabreen, Norway, an instrumented panel containing a decimetric obstacle was mounted flush with the bed surface beneath 210 m of ice. Simultaneous measurements of normal and shear stresses, ice velocity and temperature were obtained as dirty basal ice flowed past the obstacle. Our measurements were broadly consistent with ice thickness, flow conditions and bedrock topography near the site of the experiment. Ice speed 0.45 m above the bed was about 130 mm d−1, much less than the surface velocity of 800 mm d−1. Average normal stress on the panel was 1.0–1.6 MPa, smaller than the expected ice overburden pressure. Normal stress was larger and temperature was lower on the stoss side than on the lee side, in accord with flow dynamics and equilibrium thermodynamics. Annual differences in normal stresses were correlated with changes in sliding speed and ice-flow direction. These temporal variations may have been caused by changes in ice rheology associated with changes in sediment concentration, water content or both. Temperature and normal stress were generally correlated, except when clasts presumably collided with the panel. Temperature gradients in the obstacle indicated that regelation was negligible, consistent with the obstacle size. Melt rate was about 10% of the sliding speed. Despite high sliding speed, no significant ice/bed separation was observed in the lee of the obstacle. Frictional forces between sediment particles in the ice and the panel, estimated from Hallet’s (1981) model, indicated that friction accounted for about 5% of the measured bed-parallel force. This value is uncertain, as friction theories are largely untested. Some of these findings agree with sliding theories, others do not.

An enhanced composite Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) image is used to map flow stripes and rifts across the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The patterns of these flow-related features reveal a history of discharge variations from the ice streams feeding the eastern part of the shelf. The most profound variations are visible in the track of rifts downstream of Crary Ice Rise, flow-stripe bends to the west of this ice rise and adjacent to Steershead ice rise, and changes in the northern margin of Ice Stream B. The track of rifts downstream of Crary Ice Rise indicates that the ice rise has existed for at least 700 years. The character of this track changes about 350 km downstream, indicating a rearrangement of flow patterns about 550 years ago. The large bulge in the flow stripes to the west of Crary Ice Rise is shown in detail, with bent flow stripes extending for several hundred kilometers along flow; this feature formed from the south, possibly due to a change in the discharge of Ice Stream A. The AVHRR image documents a complex history associated with the shutdown of Ice Stream C, with changes in the margins of Ice Stream C and the northern margin of Ice Stream B, and the grounding of Steershead ice rise with an associated bending and truncation of flow stripes. Landsat imagery shows a region that appears to be actively extending just downstream of the ice rise, as the shelf continues to respond to recent changes in ice-stream discharge. We present a four-stage flow history which accounts for the features preserved in the ice shelf.

The partitioning between till deformation and sliding in the fast flow of ice streams with active basal melting is examined assuming no adhesion of the till to the ice base and incompressible viscous fluid behavior for the till. For deforming-till thickness of 10 m or less the predicted contribution to basal motion by sliding is larger than shearing in the till unless there is short-scale roughness with wavelengths less than order 0.1 m on the ice sole. At such short scales strain heating within the till and focused melting on the ice sole would quickly eliminate the roughness. Thus, fast flow over a till bed would be expected to be mostly by sliding over the subglacial till. More realistic continuum behavior of the till including non-linear and compressible deformation strengthens the conclusion. If sliding is not dominant, then there must be adhesion of the till to the ice base, some mechanism that continuously generates short-scale roughness on the ice–till interface, or very weak internal slip boundaries within the till.

Shearing of subglacial till has been invoked widely as a mechanism of glacier motion and sediment transport, but standard indicators for determining shear strain from the geologic record are not adequate for estimating the very high strains required of the bed-deformation model. Here we describe a laboratory study of mixing between shearing granular layers that allows an upper limit to be placed on bed shear strain in the vicinity of till contacts. Owing to random vertical motions of particles induced by shearing, mixing can be modeled as a linearly diffusive process, and so can be characterized with a single mixing coefficient, D. Ring-shear experiments with equigranular beads and lithologically distinct tills provide the value of D, although in experiments with till D decreases systematically with strain to a minimum value of 0.0045 mm2. Kinetic gas theory provides an estimate of the dimensionless mixing coefficient which is within an order of magnitude of laboratory values. Knowing the minimum value of D, the distribution of index lithologies measured across till contacts in the geologic record can be used to estimate the maximum shear strain that has occurred across till contacts. Application of this technique to the contact between the Des Moines and Superior Lobe tills in east-central Minnesota, U.S.A., indicates that shear strain did not exceed 15 000 at the depth of the contact.

Analysis of the cross-flow transmission of force from the central parts of a well-lubricated ice stream to its margins shows that there is a corresponding shift in the lateral location of motion-induced heat generation. The rate of basal heat generation in the center can be substantially smaller than the local rate of potential energy loss given by driving stress times the speed of downslope motion. The basal heating is a maximum for an intermediate level of lubrication for which speed is about 40% of the speed over a friction-less bed and base stress is about 25% of the driving stress. Stable and unstable balances between meltwater production and drainage on the bed are identified. A stable steady state with a speed less (more) than that giving maximum heat generation is termed drainage-(production-) limited, since an increase in speed would lead to increased (decreased) basal melting and must (need not) be balanced by increased drainage. It is shown that gradual evolution of the basal water drainage system and the factors affecting basal melting can cause discontinuous jumps between fast- and slow-moving states. A simplified analysis applied to six cross-sections of West Antarctic Ice Streams B, D, E and Rutford Ice Stream shows them to be diverse in the level of support from the sides and corresponding shift of mechanical heating sideward from their central parts. The cross-sections of Ice Stream B near “Upstream B” may be production-limited, because of especially high lubrication and related support from the sides. Cross-sections in the upper part of Ice Stream D, Ice Stream E and Rutford Ice Stream are in a drainage-limited condition. Substantial reduction of basal heat generation by side drag (in most cases) and expected high heat flow into the basal ice associated with low thickness (in some cases) tends to favor basal freezing. Nevertheless, all of the examined cross-sections except one are expected to experience basal melting with a modest geothermal heat-flux density of 60 m W m−1 or less in some cases. The lower part of Ice Stream B is an exception, where the analysis indicates that geothermal flux density must exceed 80–100 m W−1 m to maintain melting. If this high geothermal flux is not present, then the base of the lower part of Ice Stream B may be freezing, which would suggest continued deceleration of this part of Ice Stream B.

The Lambert Glacier–Amery Ice Shelf system is a major component of the East Antarctic ice sheet. This paper presents two digital elevation models (DEMs) that have been generated for the Lambert–Amery system from validated European Remote-sensing Satellite (ERS-1) radar altimeter waveform data. The first DEM covers the Amery Ice Shelf only, and was produced using kriging on a 1 km grid. The second is a coarser (5 km) DEM of the entire Lambert–Amery system, generated via simple averaging procedures. The DEMs provide unprecedented surface elevation information for the Lambert–Amery system and allow new insight into the glaciology of the region.

Spatial and temporal variations of surface albedo on Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Switzerland, during the 1993 and 1994 ablation seasons are described. Correlation and regression analyses are used to explain the albedo variations in terms of independent meteorological and surface property variables. Parameterizations are developed which allow estimation of albedo variation in surface energy-balance models. Snow albedo is best estimated from accumulated daily maximum temperatures since snowfall. On “deep” snow (≥0.5 cm w.e. depth) a logarithmic function is used, while on “shallow” snow (<0.5 cm w.e. depth) an exponential function is used to enable the albedo to decay to the underlying ice or debris albedo. The transition from “deep” to “shallow” snow is calculated as a function of decreasing snow depth (combined r2 = 0.65). This new parameterization performs better than earlier schemes because accumulated daily maximum temperatures since snowfall correlate strongly with snow grain-size and impurity concentration, the main physical controls on snow albedo. Ice albedo may be parameterized by its relationship to elevation (r2 = 0.28), but this approach results in only a small improvement over the assumption of a constant mean ice albedo.

The acoustic televiewer is a geophysical logging instrument that is deployed in a water-filled borehole and operated while trolling. It generates a digital, magnetically oriented image of the borehole wall that is developed from the amplitudes and transit times of acoustic waves emitted from the tool and reflected at the water–wall interface. The transit-time data are also converted to radial distances, from which cross-sectional views of the borehole shape can be constructed. Because the televiewer is equipped with both a three-component magnetometer and a two-component inclinometer, the borehole’s trajectory in space is continuously recorded as well. This instrument is routinely used in mining and hydrogeologic applications, but in this investigation it was deployed in two boreholes drilled into Upper Fremont Glacier, Wyoming, U.S.A. The acoustic images recorded in this glacial setting are not as clear as those typically obtained in rocks, due to a lower reflection coefficient for water and ice than for water and rock. Results indicate that the depth and orientation of features intersecting the boreholes can be determined, but that interpreting their physical nature is problematic and requires corroborating information from inspection of cores. Nevertheless, these data can provide some insight into englacial structural characteristics. Additional information derived from the cross-sectional geometry of the borehole, as well as from its trajectory, may also be useful in studies concerned with stress patterns and deformation processes.

Since 1 October 1995, an automatic weather station has been operated on the tongue of Morteratschgletscher, Switzerland. The station stands freely on the ice, and sinks with the melting glacier surface. It is located at 2100 m a.s.l., and measures air temperature, wind speed and direction, incoming and reflected solar radiation, pressure and snow temperature. A sonic ranger, mounted to stakes drilled into the ice, measures surface height from which melt rates and snow accumulation can be derived. In this paper the data for the period 1 October 1995 to 30 September 1998 are used to evaluate the surface energy balance. The turbulent energy fluxes are calculated with the bulk method. The turbulent exchange coefficient Ch is used as a control parameter. With Ch = 0.00127 the calculated melt equals the observed melt, which is 17.70 m w.e. over the 3 years. When averaged over the time when melting occurs (i.e. 35% of the time), the mean surface heat flux equals 191 W m−2. Net shortwave radiation contributes 177 W m−2, net longwave radiation −25 W m−2, the sensible-heat flux 31 W m−2 and the latent-heat flux 8 W m−2.

A three-dimensional finite-element model is used to analyze field data collected as dirty basal ice flowed past an instrumented obstacle at the bed of Engabreen, a temperate glacier in northern Norway The ice is modeled as an incompressible power-law fluid, with viscosity , where ΠD is the second invariant of the stretching tensor, and B and n are two parameters. Using measurements obtained in 1996 and 1997, two values of B are obtained, one using the measured normal stress difference across the obstacle, and the other using the measured bed-parallel force over the instrument. These two values are not equal, probably owing to small frictional forces at the bed unaccounted for in the numerical model. Hence, B ranges between 1.9 × 107 and 3.2 × 107 Pa s1/3 in 1996, and between 2.2 × 107 and 4.1 × 107 Pa s1/3 in 1997. These values are smaller than measured elsewhere for clean glacier or laboratory ice. Field measurements of water content, fabric and texture of the basal ice suggest that unbound water between thin sediment layers and lamellae of clean ice may act as a lubricant and significantly weaken the ice. Near-isotropic fabrics indicate that preferred fabric orientation does not enhance the deformation.

Ice motion over Lake Vostok, Antarctica, is measured using repeat-pass synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) interferometry. The coverage of the lake and the components of the vector field are resolved using 10 overlapping data takes from ascending and descending look directions. Seventy-day temporal baselines provide the sensitivity required to observe the range of ice motion (0–6 m a−1) over the lake and the adjacent ice sheet. It is remarkable that the scattering field remained coherent over these time separations. This is critical for interferometric analysis and can be attributed to the low surface accumulation and low air temperature at this elevation. The regional flow of the ice sheet around Lake Vostok is from west to east, perpendicular to the surface elevation contours. As the ice flows past the grounding line, a southward component of motion develops that is correlated with the north–south surface slope along the length of the lake. The surface velocity increases slowly from the northern tip of the lake and then more rapidly south of 77° S. At Vostok station, the ice motion is 4.2 m a−1. Across the lake and away from boundary effects, the down-lake flow pattern takes on a parabolic profile with maximum velocity close to the center line of the lake. The overall influence of the subglacial lake is the addition of a down-lake motion component to the prevailing west–east motion of the ice sheet. As a result, we estimate 10% of the mass flowing onto the lake is diverted south. Reconstructions based on the Vostok ice core indicate that the ice was grounded up-glacier from the core site approximately 5000 years ago. This suggests a minimum freezing rate of 40 mm a−1 for the subglacial accretion ice, 10 times greater than that inferred from thermodynamic modeling of the upper 2 km of the ice core.

We combine European Remote-sensing Satellite (ERS-1) radar altimeter surface elevations (Fricker and others, 2000) with six different accumulation distributions to compute balance fluxes for the Lambert Glacier–Amery Ice Shelf drainage system. These interpolated balance fluxes are compared with fluxes derived from in situ measurements of ice thickness and velocity at 73 stations of the Lambert Glacier basin traverse and at 11 stations further downstream, to assess the system’s state of balance. For the upstream line we obtain a range of imbalance estimates, from −23.8% to +19.9% of the observed flux, reflecting the sensitivity to the accumulation distributions. For some of the accumulation distributions the imbalance estimates vary significantly between different parts of the line. Imbalance estimates for the downstream line range from −17.7% to +70.2%, with four of the estimates exceeding +30%, again reflecting the sensitivity of the result to input accumulation, and strongly suggesting that the mass balance of the region between the two lines is positive. Our results confirm the importance of accurate estimates of accumulation in ice-sheet mass-balance studies. Furthermore, they suggest that it is not possible to accurately determine the state of balance of large Antarctic drainage basins on the basis of currently available accumulation distributions.

A climate–glacier model was used to reconstruct Late-glacial climate conditions from two case-study glaciers at 18° and 22° S in the arid (sub)tropical western Andes of northern Chile. The model uses (i) the geometry of the Late-glacial maximum glaciation, (ii) modern diurnal and annual cycles, amplitudes and lapse rates of the climate, (iii) empirical–statistical sublimation, melt and accumulation models developed for this area, and (iv) dynamic ice flow through two known cross-sections for steady-state conditions. The model is validated with modern conditions and compares favorably with the glaciological features of today. The mass-balance model calculates the modern equilibrium-line altitude at 18° S as high as 5850 m (field data 5800 m), whereas no glaciers exist in the fully arid southern area at 22° S despite altitudes above 6000 m and continuous permafrost. For Late-glacial times, the model results suggest a substantial increase in tropical summer precipitation (ΔP = +840 (− 50/+ 10) mm a−1 for the northern test area; +1000 (− 10/+ 30) mm a−1 for the southern test area) and a moderate temperature depression (ΔT = −4.4 (− 0.1/+ 0.2) °C at 18° S; −3.2 (±0.1) °C at 22° S). Extratropical frontal winter precipitation (June–September) was <15% of the total annual precipitation. A scenario with higher winter precipitation from the westerlies circulation belt does not yield a numerical solution which matches the observed geometry of the glaciers. Therefore, we conclude that an equatorward displacement of the westerlies must be discarded as a possible explanation for the late Pleistocene glaciation in the Andes of northern Chile.