The ice volume evolution of a frozen waterfall (or ice cascade) was studied using a thermodynamic model. The model was developed from meteorological data collected in the vicinity of the waterfall and validated from ice volume measurements estimated from terrestrial lidar images. The ice cascade forms over a 45 m high rock wall located in northern Gaspésie, Québec, Canada. Two stages of formation were identified. During the first stage, the growth is mainly controlled by air convection around the flowing and free-falling water. The ice cascade growth rate increases with decreasing air temperature below 0°C and when the water flow reaches its lowest level. During the second stage, the ice cascade covers the entire rock-wall surface, water flow is isolated from the outside environment and ice volume increases asymptotically. Heat is evacuated from the water flow through the ice cover by conduction. The growth is controlled mainly by the conductive heat loss through the ice cover but also by the longwave radiation emitted at the ice surface during the night. In spring, melting of the ice cascade is dependent on the air convection over the ice surface but also on the sensible heat carried by the increasing water flow and the solar radiation received during the day.

Ice cores from cold Alpine glaciers may provide unique paleoclimate information from non-polar latitudes. We explore the three-dimensional internal age distribution of the small cold glacier saddle (Colle Gnifetti, Monte Rosa, Italy/Switzerland) to compare the age/depth relations from four local deep ice cores. Tracking isochronous reflection horizons detected by ground-penetrating radar (GPR) among the core locations reveals consistent dating up to 80 years BP. This approach is confined to recent ages, due to the lack of clear reflections below the firn/ice transition. We attempt to overcome this limitation by including a two-dimensional flow model adapted to the GPR-derived surface accumulation and ice thickness distribution. Modeled and GPR isochrones are compared, indicating agreement in shape but featuring a potential offset of 0–3.5 m. The modeled isochrones are interpolated to the core array with ages assigned according to the ice-core datings. The resulting age distribution is consistent up to 110 years BP, with age uncertainties increasing from 7 to >80 years in the lower half of the ice. This combination of methods is novel for Alpine sites and may be adapted for spatial extrapolation of ice properties other than age.

The finite-element method (FEM) is one of the main numerical analysis methods in continuum mechanics and mechanics of solids (Huebner and others, 2001). Through mesh discretization of a given continuous domain into a finite number of sub-domains, or elements, the method finds approximate solutions to sets of simultaneous partial differential equations, which express the behavior of the elements and the entire system. For decades this methodology has played an accelerated role in mechanical engineering, structural analysis and, in particular, snow mechanics. To the best of our knowledge, the application of finite-element analysis in snow mechanics has never been summarized. Therefore, in this correspondence we provide a table with a detailed review of the main FEM studies on snow mechanics performed from 1971 to 2012 (40 papers), for facilitating comparison between different mechanical approaches, outlining numerical recipes and for future reference. We believe that this kind of compact review in a tabulated form will produce a snapshot of the state of the art, and thus become an appropriate, timely and beneficial reference for any relevant follow-up research, including, for example, not only snow avalanche questions, but also modeling of snow microstructure and tire–snow interaction. To that end, this correspondence is organized according to the following structure. Table 1 includes all essential information about previously published FEM studies originally developed to investigate stresses in snow with all corresponding mechanical and numerical parameters. Columns in Table 1 provide references to particular studies, placed in chronological order. Rows correspond to the main model parameters and other details of each considered case.

The positive degree-day model is a parameterization of surface melt widely used for its simplicity (Hock, 2003).