At a depth of about 75 m in the lower part of the accumulation area of the Barnes Ice Cap there is a change from fine-grained ice with a weakly-oriented c-axis fabric to coarser ice with a broad single-maximum fabric. At a depth of about 150 m the single maximum becomes elongate perpendicular to the direction of bubble elongation, and then splits into two distinct maxima making an angle of about 40–45° with respect to one another. At greater depths a third and finally a fourth maximum appear, forming the well known diamond pattern. Mean crystal size does not seem to increase in the transitions from one to two and thence to three maxima, but it may become more uniform. Crystal size does increase in the transition from three to four maxima, however. At the base of the glacier there is a 10–20 m thick layer of unusually-bubbly, fine-grained white ice with a strong single-maximum fabric.

The depths to the transitions increase up-glacier and in place of the single-maximum fabric a small-circle pattern is found. Down-glacier the depths to the transitions decrease, systematically eliminating the higher zones. Thus in the lower part of the ablation area, ice with a four-maximum fabric appears at the surface.

The independent variables governing these fabric transitions appear to be temperature T, stress τ, and cumulative strain ³oc. In a tentative stability diagram showing the fields in which given fabrics are stable in T–τ–³oc space, multiple-maximum fabrics occur at high temperatures (> —10°C) and at moderate to high stresses, weakly-oriented fabrics at low stresses or low cumulative strains, broad single-maximum fabrics at moderate stresses or moderate cumulative strains, and strong single-maximum fabrics at high stresses or large cumulative strains.

A detailed investigation has been carried out on the dynamics of an Alpine valley glacier of relatively simple shape and the results are considered in relation to the development of secondary structures. Ice velocity reaches a maximum near the top of a small ice fall (40 m a−1) which also coincides approximately with the equilibrium line. Flow lines converge in the accumulation area but are roughly parallel in the ablation area. The “regional” strain-rate pattern is rather complex. Approximate longitudinal extension is evident in the accumulation area and strain-rates reach high values at the south margin and in the ice fall (up to 0.12 a−1). In the ablation area, strain-rates are comparatively small and in general indicate longitudinal compression. “Local” deformation rates obtained in the area beneath the ice fall and along a flow line near one of the margins reveal complex patterns of deformation within small areas.

There is no clear relationship between foliation and strain-rates (and by analogy stresses), except in the case of longitudinal foliation in marginal areas which, if actively developing, lies approximately parallel to a direction of maximum shear strain-rate. It is more important to consider the relationship of this structure to strain history. Results from this study indicate that, regardless of the initial orientation of the foliation in relation to the strain ellipse, it attains approximate parallelism with the long axis of the ellipse as deformation progresses.

It is also shown that many foliations originate from pre-existing layered structures such as stratification or crevasse traces. This problem is discussed particularly with reference to an arcuate foliation which originates in the ice fall and is believed to represent tensional veins, subsequently subjected to compressive strain within and below the ice fall.

Steady plane flow under gravity of a symmetric ice sheet resting on a horizontal rigid bed, subject to surface accumulation and ablation, basal drainage, and basal sliding according to a shear-traction-velocity power law, is treated. 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, with illustrations presented for Glen’s power law, the polynomial law of Colbeck and Evans, and a Newtonian fluid. Uniform temperature is assumed so that effects of a realistic temperature distribution on the ice response are not taken into account. In dimensionless variables a small paramter ν occurs, but the ν = 0 solution corresponds to an unbounded sheet of uniform depth. To obtain a bounded sheet, a horizontal coordinate scaling by a small factor ε(ν) is required, so that the aspect ratio ε of a steady ice sheet is determined by the ice properties, accumulation magnitude, and the magnitude of the central thickness. A perturbation expansion in ε gives simple leading-order terms for the stress and velocity components, and generates a first order non-linear differential equation for the free-surface slope, which is then integrated to determine the profile. The non-linear differential equation can be solved explicitly for a linear sliding law in the Newtonian case. For the general law it is shown that the leading-order approximation is valid both at the margin and in the central zone provided that the power and coefficient in the sliding law satisfy certain restrictions.

By introducing a coordinate stretching, the governing field equations of the creep flow of a non-Newtonian viscous medium down a uniform slope are solved to determine the differential equation describing the propagation of long surface waves caused by initial disturbances and/or time-dependent accumulation-rate The differential equation for the surface wave depends on the flow law of the non-Newtonian fluid, the boundary condition at the ice-bedrock interface, the bedrock topography and the thickness–wavelength ratio. For moderately long waves and small elevation above the mean thickness the results agree in their essentials with those of the kinematic wave theory and the forward wave equation with a diffusion term is derived, but when improving this by allowing higher elevations the Burger's equation and even more complex equations are obtained. To derive these results Glen’s flow law must be generalized to avoid infinitely fast changes in stress deviators close to zero Strain-rates, The range of applicability of the various equations is discussed.

This paper reviews the results of 10 years study of the only four subglacial sites which are permanently accessible due to activity by hydro-electrical companies. All the sites occur beneath temperate ice. The first part is devoted to the study of the ice-rock interface as a glaciological phenomenon, and emphasizes the dynamic conditions for separation of the ice from the rock bed. This glaciological cavitation phenomenon occurs when tan α > Vi/Hi. Another phenomenon, “regressive cavitation” refers to the existence up-stream of the large permanent cavities, of a series of small cavities which although they are not permanent are fundamentally important because they control the subglacial water drainage allowing the water to penetrate new routes. The second part analyses the sliding movement of the ice on the rock bed. The deformation of the cavities depends mainly on variations in the velocity of the glacier. The sliding velocity measured at the interface accounts for 60 to 80% of the surface movement of the glacier; 80 to 90% of the surface velocity movement is attained a few metres above the glacier-bed interface. The third part describes the characteristics of subglacial drainage which are necessary to understand the nature of the ice-rock interface. The fourth part is devoted to the precise description of the different types of interface as they appeared in the subglacial sites.

The propagation of plastic shock waves in snow is analyzed in order to evaluate the effect of wave intensity and frequency content on attenuation. The results show that frequency content is not very significant and that large amplitude pressure waves lose their effectiveness very quickly. These results seem to support the present-day contention that air-induced explosions are a more effective means of controlling avalanches than explosives placed in the snow-pack and that explosive speed is not a particularly important factor in determining explosive effectiveness.

The behaviour of a snow mass under natural loadings (gravity forces, boundary conditions) can be computed by the finite-element method, in so far as a convenient formulation of the stress–strain relationship for snow is available. This paper deals with such a formulation given in incremental form.

Experiments have been performed, which show that deposited snow can be considered as a non-linear visco-elastic material with memory effect. The proposed theoretical formulation takes into account these properties. The elastic part of the deformation is assumed to be isotropic and non-linear; the viscous part is expressed in terms of a creep-rate, which results from a superposition of elementary creep-rates according to Boltzmann’s principle.

The values of parameters can be obtained from isotropic creep experiments. The experimental data and the resulting parameters are reported.

Since the parameters were determined, the formulation of the rheological law was then tested by integration on “stress–strain paths" corresponding to other experiments of a different type, performed on the same snow. The experiments are triaxial tests at constant axial strain-rate, with a preliminary stage of isotropic compression. Experimental data are compared to theoretical curves obtained by integration of the rheological law. The calculated behaviour is consistent with the experimental results.

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.

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.

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.