Studies of the chemical stratigraphy in the snow near Vostok station, which is near the centre of the East Antarctic ice sheet, show that sodium exhibits annual concentration differences of up to a factor of ten. Similar work on the 952 m Vostok ice core enabled accumulation rates along selected parts of the core to be determined. This in turn enables the core to be dated. The accumulation rate in this central region of the East Antarctic ice sheet for the last 50000 years has been determined and is presented. An interesting result is that the accumulation rate during the last glacial period is only half that in post-glacial times. Results from the bottom of the core provide some evidence of a past surge in the East Antarctic ice sheet.

An extensive system of mirabilite (Na2SO4 · 10H2O) beds has been mapped on the Ross Ice Shelf near Black Island. The salt beds are normally underlain by a thin layer of mud and their surface is covered by a non-marine algal mat and boulder lag. These authors suggest the salt has been formed by the displacement of sub-ice-shelf brines to the ice-shelf surface. Evidence also suggests that other terrestrial mirabilite beds in the McMurdo Sound area were formed in the same manner and deposited by the Ross Ice Shelf during its Wisconsin retreat from McMurdo Sound. Mirabilite salt in the dry valleys, southern Victoria Land, may have also originated from melt waters which dissolved ice-shelf mirabilite beds.

The object of the research is to determine whether direct methods from the calculus of variations can provide convenient approximate solutions of complex problems in glacier mechanics. The Ritz technique is used to minimize an appropriate functional. Coordinate functions obtained from a finite-element model are combined with a coordinate function that is the solution of a related problem. The finite-element coordinate functions make localized adjustments to the related solution. Solutions of two sample problems are presented. An analysis of the closure of an intergranular vein in ice at the melting point is based upon a variational principle for velocities. An analysis of the flow of ice in a cylindrical channel is based upon a variational principle for stresses.

Steady plane flow under gravity of an axisymmetric ice sheet resting on a horizontal rigid bed, subject to surface accumulation and ablation, basal drainage, and basal sliding is treated according to a power law between shear traction and velocity. The surface accumulation is taken to depend on height, and the drainage and sliding coefficient also depend on the height of overlying ice. The ice is described as a general non-linearly viscous incompressible fluid, and temperature variation through the ice sheet is neglected. Illustrations are presented for Glen’s power law (including the special case of a Newtonian fluid), and the polynomial law of Colbeck and Evans. The analysis follows that of Morland and Johnson (1980) where the analogous problem for an ice sheet deforming under plane flow was considered. Comparisons are made between the two models and it is found that the effect of the third dimension is to reduce (or leave unchanged) the aspect ratio for the cases considered, although no general formula can be obtained. This reduction is seen to depend on both the surface accumulation and the sliding law.

Thickness changes of ice sheets are, except perhaps at the snout region, small as compared to unity. This suggests using a coordinate stretching so as to make the surface changes in the new coordinates of order one. The explicit occurrence of the smallness parameter in the governing equations then allows us to search for perturbation solutions in various problems. Here, it is shown that the classical formula for the basal shear stress follows easily from such a perturbation procedure. Furthermore it can be improved to account for longitudinal strain effects. As compared to previous work in this area, these formulae are explicit and allow us to take vertical variations of material properties into account in a straightforward manner.

Significant new information on radiation transmittance through ice in the photosynthetically active range (400–700 nm) has been collected at an inland lake near Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A., and at one site on the Great Lakes (lat. 46° 46´ N., long. 84° 57´ W.). Radiation transmittance through clear, refrozen slush, and brash ice varied according to snow cover, ice type, atmospheric conditions, and solar altitude.

Snow cover caused the greatest diminution of radiation. During periods of snow melt, radiation transmittance through snow-covered ice surfaces increased slightly. Moderate diurnal variations of radiation transmittance (about 5%) are attributed to solar altitude changes and associated changes in the direct- diffuse balance of solar radiation combined with the type of ice surface studied. Variations in radiation transmittance of nearly 20% over short periods of time are attributed to abrupt changes from a clear to a cloudy atmosphere.

A two-layer reflectance–transmittance model illustrates the interaction of layers in an ice cover such as snow or frost overlying clear ice. Upper layers of high reflectance have considerable control on the overall transmittance and reflectance of an ice cover.

Application of the gravity flow theory to the percolation of melt water through the firn in the accumulation area of a temperate glacier explains the occurrence of shock fronts in the melt-water flux. The time of propagation of a shock front moving from the surface through the entire firn was calculated under various assumptions. Various time input functions of melt-water flux at the surface with constant total input volumes yield only slight differences in the time of propagation of the shock front at greater depths. The dependence of the time of propagation of a shock front on the input volume, on snow parameters, and on the total thickness of the firn was calculated. An approximately linear relation was found to exist between the time of propagation of a shock front moving through the firn and the total thickness of the firn. The drainage of melt water from the firn after the summer ablation period is also quantitatively explained by the gravity flow theory. All results are in good agreement with experimental data.

To provide engineers with a better tool, we have developed a program for avalanche computation. After a brief description of the mathematical model and the assumptions, we describe influence of physical and numerical parameters, which allows a better understanding of the physical phenomenon which we call an avalanche. The satisfactory agreement between computations and observations allows us to assume that the model is well founded; further experiments will allow us to improve this simulation tool.

The Nimbus-6 satellite carries the Scanning Microwave Spectrometer experiment (SCAMS) which continuously maps the Earth’s surface at two frequencies (22.235 and 31.65 GHz) and at six angles besides nadir. Cluster analysis was applied to these observations to determine the influence of various geophysical parameters on the radiometric brightness temperatures.

Characteristic microwave signatures for a variety of terrain were obtained by this method; discrete clusters were distinguished for sea ice (with sub-classes for ice age and fractional ice cover) and firn (with accumulation-rate sub-classes). The availability of the angular data greatly facilitated separate determinations of the extent of continuous sea ice and mixtures of sea ice and water.

The stable isotopes oxygen-18 and deuterium in snow samples collected in four mountain regions (the South American Andes, the Central Asian Hindu Kush, the Himalaya, and Mounts Kenya and Kilimanjaro in Africa) have been measured. The altitude effect in fresh snow precipitation and in the snow-pack was determined for δ180 as being within the range —0.6‰ to about — 1.0‰ per 100 m of elevation, but this can be altered or even inverted by secondary factors. These factors are connected with conditions of snow-fall and post-depositional changes in the snow, which are strongly dependent on the topography of the sampled mountain slope and on climatic conditions. All these effects are discussed.

Contemporary processes of moraine development at the margins of polar glaciers encompass a wide range of subtly different mechanisms. Two types of “controlled” moraine evolution, applicable to hummocks and transverse moraine ridges, are identified from Wright Lower Glacier and Webb Glacier, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Type 1 moraine complexes involve a relatively abundant supply of supraglacial debris, the development of transverse thrust blocks in the ablation-zone ice and the subsequent re-arrangement of ablation debris in ablation cusps and on inactive thrust blocks. Relict landform suites, apparently formed in this manner, reveal large coarse-grained hummocks inset behind moraine ridge remnants.

Type 2 moraines may develop where the supply of supraglacial debris is meagre but the growth of ablation cusps concentrates primarily englacial debris into small irregular hummocks. The gravel component of this debris is usually of finer texture than for type 1 deposits, reflecting abrasion/attrition effects of prior englacial transportation. Transverse moraine ridges may or may not be associated with type 2 hummocks, depending on local variations of ice motion, ice decay, and debris supply.

Creep tests were performed in torsion and torsion–compression on polycrystalline ice at temperatures near the melting point. Syntectonic recrystallization occurs at strains of the order of 2–3%, leading to a rapid increase in strain-rate. It is shown that the increase of creep-rate during tertiary creep arises from the development of fabrics favouring the glide on basal planes but also from the softening processes associated with recrystallization. The c-axis fabric of recrystallized ice developed in simple shear consists of two-maxima, one at the pole of the permanent shear plane and the other between the normal of the second plane of maximum shearing stress and the principal direction of compression. In torsion–compression, a three- or four-maximum fabric is formed according to the intensity of different components of the stress tensor. The maxima are clustered around the principal direction of compression. Processes of fabric formation are discussed. The experimentally developed fabrics are probably produced by the strain-induced recrystallization, for which the driving force is provided by differences in stored plastic strain energy. However the degree of preferred orientation of ice c-axes must be a function of the total strain when syntectonic recrystallization becomes less important. In this case, fabrics are principally formed by plastic flow and a steady state is obtained for very high strains.

Biaxial compression tests on glacier ice with bubbles revealed that elongated air bubbles were developed with long axes in the direction of free expansion. The elongated bubbles were not only derived from spherical bubbles but also created by the healing of cracks that were developed during compression. Formation of elongated bubbles and foliations in natural glacier ice are discussed here in the light of results obtained experimentally.

Triaxial testing of frozen saturated Ottawa sand under confined compression was carried out under hydrostatic pressures varying between 0.1 and 75 MPa at a temperature of -10°C and strain-rate 7.7×10-5 s-1. Yield and failure stresses increased with increasing hydrostatic pressures up to about 40 MPa, beyond which the stresses dropped. The results are analysed according to the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion and compared with past results in the literature.

Total snow depth is determined by measuring the time of flight of an ultrasonic wave packet emitted from a sonic transmitter above the snow surface and reflected from the snow surface back to the receiver/transmitter system. The light-weight system is battery powered (operating time without battery change at least 8 months) and can be fixed to any post above the snow surface. The absolute precision is better than ±0.03 m. Data and commands are transmitted by a single two-wire system up to several kilometres.

Snow transportation by wind in potential avalanche fracture zones is a very important parameter for avalanche forecasts. A special battery-powered photoelectric sensor has been developed by the Eidg. Institut für Schnee- und Lawinenforschung, Weissfluhjoch/Davos. The output pulse rate is proportional to the mass flux (units of kg m–2 s–1). Drift particles larger than 50 μm in diameter are classified according to their volumes in five classes. The accuracy of the flux measurement is ±50% and is limited by physical factors and not by the apparatus.

Field trials show that the liquid-water content of snow can be determined simply and cheaply by a version of Bader’s solution method.

We seek to infer the velocities within a cylindrical valley glacier from measured surface velocities. In the Newtonian viscous case, an explicit finite-difference scheme does not fulfil von Neumann’s condition for numerical stability. How this fact does not contradict the existence of Somigliana’s analytical solution is explained. A procedure is given which delays the onset of instability and allows velocities at shallow depths to be determined.

Baspa Glacier occupies an area of about 35 km2 in the south-eastern part of Kinnaur District, Himachal Pradesh, and it is the source of the Baspa River, a major tributary of the Sutlej. It is a longitudinal valley-type glacier with a large cirque area. The field evidence indicates that the glacier has retreated considerably in the recent past.

Flutes, up to about 500 m long, were observed on bare glacially polished bedrock at the margin of the glacier Svartisen in northern Norway. Since these ridges were lying directly on bedrock that had no till cover, they can hardly have been formed by post-depositional deformation of pre-existing materials, a mechanism for formation favoured by Boulton.