In order to flow with the gradients observed (10° to 15°) rock glaciers cannot be simply ice-cemented rock debris, but probably contain masses or lenses of debris-free ice. The nature and origin of the ice in rock glaciers that are in no way connected to ice glaciers has not been adequately explained. Rock glaciers and talus above them are permeable. Water from snow-melt and rain flows through the lower part of the debris on top of the bedrock floor. In the headward part of a rock glacier, where the total thickness is not great, if this groundwater flow is able to maintain water pressure against the base of an aggrading permafrost, segregation of ice lenses should take place. Ice segregation on a large scale would produce lenses of clear ice of sufficient size to permit the streams or lobes of rock debris to flow with gradients comparable to those of glaciers. It would also account for the substantial loss in volume that takes place when a rock glacier stabilizes and collapses.

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.

Recession of “Golden Eagle” glacier in the central Brooks Range is exposing undisturbed lichen-covered boulders. Radiocarbon analysis of dead moss surrounding these boulders dates a Neoglacial advance across this site at 1120±180 years b.p Measurements of the preserved lichens indicate that a minimum ice-free period of 1500–2500 years preceded this glacial expansion.

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.

Igneous and metamorphic cobbles in sub-ice material recovered from a drill core which penetrated the ice sheet at Camp Century, Greenland, provide a rare look at the geology beneath the ice in the interior of Greenland. The sub-ice material can be correlated, based on petrography, with rocks of the Rinkian mobile belt of the west coast of Greenland; however, preliminary strontium isotopic data suggest such correlation should be made with caution. Chemical analyses and rare-earth element data are given to provide the basis for more rigorous correlations as more data become available on the Rinkian rocks.

Cirque-like features, occurring on the western flank of Shawangunk Mountain in south-east New York State, are unique in the area. Though these topographic forms are apparently the product of periglacial and glacial processes, their initiation and subsequent development were dependent to a considerable extent on a specific set of jointing and bedding attitudes and differential lithologies.

A currently active rock glacier with a snout elevation of 4055 m was observed in the Jammu and Kashmir Himalaya. Its formation is ascribed to stagnation of the terminal area of a true glacier.