The microwave emission from a half-space medium characterized by coordinate dependent scattering and absorbing centers has been calculated by numerically solving the radiative transfer equation by the method of invariant imbedding. A Mie scattering phase function and surface polarization have been included in the calculation. Also included are the physical temperature profile and the temperature variation of the index of refraction for ice. Using published values of grain-size and temperature-profile data of polar firn, the brightness temperature has been calculated for the 1.55 cm and 0.8 cm wavelengths. For selected regions in Greenland and Antarctica, the results of our calculations are in reasonable agreement with the observed Nimbus-5 and Nimbus-6 ESMR data.

Velocities have been derived from motion-picture film of two different avalanches falling in known terrain. These data are used to calculate avalanche behavior according to the method of Voellmy and the method of Lang and others. Results suggest that Voellmy’s coefficient of turbulent flow may be related to snow density and temperature as much as it is to terrain roughness. For avalanche flow modelled as a transient, viscous process, specification of friction coefficient and kinetic viscosity over a limited range of values successfully predicts a wide range of avalanche behavior.

The way free water is distributed around contact points of ice grains is recorded by measuring the dielectric constant of the porous system which constitutes snow. Within the saturation range of 11% to 15% of the pore volume, a transitional range from the “pendular” to the “funicular” mode of distribution of free water occurs. By measuring the drainage-flow of free water through snow, additional information as to the upper limit of the pendular distribution is obtained. This upper limit is reached at a saturation of approximately 14% of the pore volume.

Two–dimensional hydrodynamic equations for laminar, viscous flow, and admitting a frictional slip-plane lower boundary are applied to the modeling of snow-avalanche impact on rigid wall structures. Predicted maximum pressures and pressures versus time are compared with published experimental results, and general correspondence is established. Impact pressure versus time is found to depend upon the shape of the avalanche leading edge, for which general information is lacking. Computer modeling of more complex structural configurations is feasible using the methodology reported.

Different statistical methods have been tested to answer the challenging problem of forecasting avalanche activity. For each approach, the theoretical background is briefly described, and the main advantages and drawbacks are discussed. The first method consists of a simple discriminant analysis applied to a sample of avalanche days against a sample of non-avalanche days. The second approach tries to take into account different types of avalanche phenomena associated with different types of snow and weather situations. It requires the development of an avalanche typology compatible with the available variables, and leads to a two-stage decision model. A given day is first allocated to a weather type, within which the proper model avalanche-non-avalanche is then processed. A third method, a local non-parametric one, consists of drawing, for the day under study and in an appropriate predictor space, its nearest neighbours from the sample file in order to get an estimate of the probability of avalanche occurrence. For each approach, the explanatory variables may be processed directly as quantitative continuous data or as qualitative categorized data. This removes the problems associated with the very asymmetric distribution of half of them, at the cost of a moderate loss of information. As a rule, the methods were calibrated and then applied to the winters 1972–73 and 1973–74 used as a test sample, thus allowing comparison of their respective potentials in operational forecast.

Two major types of terrain that formed at or near the bed of Pleistocene continental ice sheets are widespread throughout the prairie region of Canada and the United States. These are (1) glacial-thrust blocks and source depressions, and (2) streamlined terrain.

Glacial-thrust terrain formed where the glacier was frozen to the substrate and where elevated pore-pressure decreased the shear strength of the substrate to a value less than that applied by the glacier. The marginal zone of ice sheets consisted of a frozen-bed zone, no more than 2–3 km wide in places, within which glacial-thrust blocks are large and angular. Up-glacier from this zone, the thrust blocks are generally smaller and smoothed. Streamlined terrain begins 2–3 km behind known ice-margin positions and extends tens of kilometres up-glacier Streamlined terrain formed in two ways: (1) erosion of the substrate as a consequence of basal sliding in the sub-marginal thawed-bed zone, and (2) erosional smoothing accompanied by emplacement of till in the lee of thrust blocks where they were deposited and subsequently exposed to thawed-bed conditions as a result of further advance of the glacier.

A dynamic constitutive law is used to study the response of medium-density snow to shock waves. The results show good correlation between theory and experiment, except for low-intensity shocks which produce small permanent density changes. In this case the validity of the data is questioned, although further experimental work is needed to settle this question. The results of this work also partially explain why snow is so effective in absorbing energy associated with stress waves. This is felt to be due to the work-hardening characteristics of snow.

Radio echo-sounding equipment has been designed, and used for depth sounding on temperate glaciers in Iceland. Two devices have been built. Mark I operates in the frequency band 2 to 5 MHz. The overall range is 100 to 1000 m. The arrival of the echo can be timed with an accuracy which corresponds to 20 m resolution. The equipment has been used for routine soundings on Mýrdalsjökull and Vatnajökull for the last two years. Mark II operates at 2 to 10 MHz. The range is from 30 to 400 m and the range resolution is 8 m. The equipment has been used for successful soundings on valley glaciers.

The power consumption of the whole system is 18 W plus 72 W for the oscilloscope (Tektronix Model 465). The voltage is supplied from 12 V car batteries. The total weight of the equipment is about 35 kg plus the weight of batteries. The antennae are contained in 16 mm plastic tubes. The equipment is placed on two sledges and towed behind a snowmobile or a skidoo. A continuous sounding record is photographed from the oscilloscope.

Nivation is a collective noun identifying a set of geomorphic processes, comprised of an indeterminate number of elements and of unknown relative importance, for which there is little likelihood of ever producing a precise definition. Instead, attention should first be directed towards the relationships between snow-packs and individual geomorphic processes. The relationship between freezing amplitude in the bedrock, snow cover, and aspect at an Arctic site in northern Norway and an alpine site in the Front Range, Colorado, U.S.A. is complex. Comparison of field data and laboratory criteria permit several conflicting interpretations. If oscillations across 0°C, regardless of freezing amplitude, are critical, the alpine site is potentially a more active freeze-thaw weathering regime, with a primary springtime peak and a secondary fall peak. If a freezing amplitude of –5°C is required for effective freeze-thaw weathering then the alpine site is largely inactive and the Arctic active (but with only a single fall peak). Chemical weathering is much more important at snow-patch sites than has traditionally been recognized. Mass wasting at colluvial sites subject to snow patches is dominated by interaction between overland flow and solifluction when the site is unvegetated, and by solifluction when it is vegetated. Given contemporary knowledge of snow and glacial geomorphology, there appears to be no threshold, only differences of intensity. Resolution of the disruptive mechanism associated with bedrock freezing and its constraining temperature and moisture requirements is the most pressing present problem in the field of snow geomorphology.

The modern and composite Pleistocene snow-lines of the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains, Montana-Wyoming, were established from a population of 135 north-facing cirques and cirque glaciers distributed across Boulder River, Stillwater River, Rosebud, and Rock Creeks. The 3110 m elevation of the modern snow-line was established by connecting the accumulation-area ratios of 35 existing cirque glaciers. The composite Pleistocene snow-line was established by joining the mean floor elevations of the lowest abandoned cirques.

Comparison of the modern and composite Pleistocene snow-lines indicates that the composite Pleistocene snow-line was depressed, at minimum, 305 m during the Pleistocene. The 305 m depression suggests that the mean Pleistocene temperatures were, at a minimum, 1.9 deg lower than the present mean annual temperatures found in the study area.

Both the modern and Pleistocene snow-lines slope towards lower elevations in the Boulder and Stillwater drainages than in the Rosebud–Rock Creek drainages. Modern precipitation rates also show greater precipitation in the Boulder–Stillwater drainages than the Rosebud–Rock Creek drainages. The parallelism of the modern and composite Pleistocene snow-lines, and present precipitation rates suggest that temperature rather than precipitation is the controlling factor causing the depression of the snow-lines.

The distribution of cirque elevations indicates that snow-lines fluctuated a minimum of four times during the Pleistocene.

The discharge pattern of the “Schei River”, which drains a 91.2 km2 partly glacierized catchment on Ellesmere Island, is dominated by diurnal oscillations reflecting variations in the melt rate of snow and ice in the basin. Superimposed on this diurnal pattern are numerous short–lived discharge fluctuations of irregular periodicity and magnitude. The characteristics of such irregular fluctuations are described and attributed to periodic collapse of the glacier margin and concomitant damming of the main tributary of the “Schei River”. Collapse is initiated by the river undercutting the ice margin, and tends to be most frequent in the latter part of the flow season during periods of high discharge. Release of ponded water following the collapse of such ice dams may engender significant flood events.

Surface textures and angularity–roundness characteristics of quartz sand grains of till from the base of the Greenland ice sheet at Camp Century were examined with a scanning electron microscope. Two basic populations are revealed; an angular component, which shows grains with edge abrasion and attrition indicative of subglacial grinding, and a well-rounded component with the characteristics of aeolian transport. It is suggested that these two populations were mixed subglacially, the aeolian fraction having been produced at some stage before the ice sheet encroached over the area of their deposition.

A model of dislocation glide in ice Ih was recently proposed. This model was developed on certain assumptions, namely that transitions occur through cooperative movements of H2O molecules in the non-crystalline core of dislocations. A relation between the velocity vd of linear defects and shear stress τ or temperature T is obtained. This relation shows that vd varies linearly with τ at low values of τ and (or) T but varies more rapidly at higher stresses; this non-linearity is more pronounced the higher the temperature. Such an analysis is extended in order to take into account doping effects. The case of HF-doped ice is considered: it is shown that there is a strong accumulation effect of HF molecules in the dislocation cores, which induces an increase of the rate of transitions. The results are in agreement with experimental data concerning both the velocity of dislocations and high-temperature internal friction in HF-doped ice.

Rock glaciers in Teleki Valley on Mount Kenya exist above 4 000 m below steep valley walls where they are supplied with debris from avalanche couloirs. These valley-side rock glaciers consist of three or four lobes of rubble bounded by transverse furrows resulting from differential movement. No ice cores were observed in these rubble sheets, but “drunken forest” stands of Senecio keniodendron indicate the probable presence of interstitial ice resulting either from the metamorphism of snow buried under rockfall and slide-rock debris, or from freezing of water beneath the rock mantle. A geological survey of Mount Kenya in 1976 revealed that rock glaciers are anomalous in the Mount Kenya Afroalpine zone above 3 300 m. Analysis of weathering rinds indicates that several rock-glacier lobes were built up over a short interval of time at or near the end of the last glacial maximum (Würm). Oversteepened fronts on the westernmost lobes may have resulted from re-activation coinciding with the advance of glaciers during late Holocene time (<1 000 B.P.). Soils mantle 20% of the rock-glacier surface and have morphological characteristics comparable with soils forming on moraines of late Würm age in upper Teleki, Hausberg, and Mackinder Valleys.

Uniaxial compression creep tests were performed on artificial and natural polycrystalline ices at temperatures near –7°C. The grain-size range investigated was from 1 to 10 mm. Contrary to previous results, the permanent creep-rate was not found to increase with crystal size. Only the transient creep appears to be sensitive to variations in crystal size.