The main perturbation in the mass balance of Storglaciären during the twentieth century was caused by a sudden 1°C increase in the summer mean temperature around 1910. Later perturbations of the climate have been of minor importance in relation to the mass balance. Annual field surveys suggest that the mass budget on Storglaciären has been in near balance for the last 15 years. Because of this major step-like change, we can establish the validity of theoretical models giving response times for Storglaciären of the order of 50 years. According to these models, Storglaciären could by now have reached a profile in balance with the present climate. To study this problem, the emergence velocity was calculated and compared with the net balance. The result shows that the emergence velocity either balances or exceeds the net balance for the entire tongue except for the lowermost part, where it decreases to about half of the net balance. A slight further recession of the front position would thus be expected with today’s climate.

Calculated balance velocities also suggest that most of the present profile is close to a steady-state profile, if the mean annual sliding velocity is about 50% of the surface velocity. Lower sliding velocities would imply a thickening of the tongue and a thinning of the accumulation area during years of balanced mass budget.

Southern Ocean hydrography has undergone substantial changes in recent decades, concurrent with an increase in the rate of Antarctic ice-shelf melting (AISM). We investigate the impact of increasing AISM on hydrography through a twin numerical experiment, with and without AISM, using a global coupled sea-ice/ocean climate model. The difference between these simulations gives a qualitative understanding of the impact of increasing AISM on hydrography. It is found that increasing AISM tends to freshen the surface water, warm the intermediate and deep waters, and freshen and warm the bottom water in the Southern Ocean. Such effects are consistent with the recent observed trends, suggesting that increasing AISM is likely a significant contributor to the changes in the Southern Ocean. Our analyses indicate potential positive feedback between hydrography and AISM that would amplify the effect on both Southern Ocean hydrography and Antarctic ice-shelf loss caused by external factors such as changing Southern Hemisphere winds.

A method for identifying the center of ice flow is developed and applied using results from surveys of a strain grid near the summit of Dunde Ice Cap (central China). Strain rates are used to compute stresses. These are used with a consideration of the balance of forces to compute basal friction. The flow center at the bed occurs where this friction changes sign. For Dunde Ice Cap, the basal flow center nearly underlies the summit.

Large errors in the estimation of glacier ablation and accumulation may arise from the uncritical use of planimetric surface areas in volume calculations based on specific point values. Three-dimensional digital terrain models of glacier surfaces show that the actual surface area is likely to be substantially larger than the planimetric area; with high-resolution digital terrain models, approximations of the true surface area may be as much as 20% larger. The errors are sufficient for questions to be raised about some calculations of water storage in glaciers, because incorrect surface-area values may result in ablation being underestimated substantially. Errors may also be introduced into calculations of radiation-energy inputs to a crevassed glacier surface.

The use of the two-phase system ice–water to illustrate the effects on equilibrium of both hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic stresses has been a recurrent theme in the history of thermodynamic theory. The effects of hydrostatic pressure on the melting point of ice are firmly established by theory and experiment. Those of non-hydrostatic stress are still a subject of debate today; several theorists have predicted ice re-crystallization under such stress, but the magnitude of any slight melting-point depression is not known with certainty. The recrystallization of ice caused by local variations in hydrostatic stress was predicted and experimentally confirmed over a century ago. Cavities deep within temperate glaciers provide a suitable environment for the occurrence of this latter phenomenon. A water-filled cavity intersected by a tunnel in nearly stagnant ice of the Blue Glacier, Washington State, U.S.A., was lined with large and unusual single ice crystals which apparently owe their origin to the effects of hydrostatic stress. Even the minute differences in pressure melting point around this cavity are adequate to remove the heat of fusion as ice forms within it. There is evidence that interstitial movement of melt water in the surrounding ice also contributes to the heat and mass transfer. The form of these crystals indicates that they grew into slightly supercooled water. It is suggested that this growth pattern is sustained by the existence of oriented stresses at the cavity walls.

The objective of this research is to model snow's response to dynamic, impact loading. Two constitutive relationships are considered: elastic and Maxwell-viscoelastic. These material models are applied to laboratory experiments consisting of 1000 individual impacts across 22 snow column configurations. The columns are 60 cm tall with a 30 cm by 30 cm cross-section. The snow ranges in density from 135 to 428 kg m−3 and is loaded with both short-duration (~1 ms) and long-duration (~10 ms) impacts. The Maxwell-viscoelastic model more accurately describes snow's response because it contains a mechanism for energy dissipation, which the elastic model does not. Furthermore, the ascertained model parameters show a clear dependence on impact duration; shorter duration impacts resulted in higher wave speeds and greater damping coefficients. The stress wave's magnitude is amplified when it hits a stiffer material because of the positive interference between incident and reflected waves. This phenomenon is observed in the laboratory and modeled with the governing equations.

An in-depth analysis of seven samples from the Siple Dome (Antarctica) ice core, using optical microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction, illustrates rotational recrystallization or polygonization in the fine-grained region of the core between 700 and 800 m. Between 640 and 700 m, the microstructure is characterized by a bimodal grain-size distribution and a broken girdle fabric with evidence of polygonization. From 727 to 770 m, mean grain size decreases and a single-maximum fabric is found, and, by 790 m, mean grain size has again increased and a multiple-maxima fabric manifests itself. We compare grain-size distribution, c- and a-axis orientation, and misorientation between adjacent grains. We found that misorientations between adjacent grains in the 727–770 m region were predominantly low-angle and typically around a common a-axis, suggesting polygonization. This conclusion is supported by radar evidence of a physical disturbance at 757 m, which may be correlated with higher than usual strain in the 700–800 m range. Below 770 m, larger less regular misorientations and textural evidence show that migration recrystallization is the primary recrystallization mechanism.

Measurements have been made using two different methods of the rate at which the glacier Austerdalsbreen is slipping past its side wall at four sites. The rate of slipping varies from site to site in a way which seems to be connected with the details of glacier flow in the neighbourhood, and in all cases is less than the slip previously measured further up-glacier at the foot of one of the ice falls, and is also a smaller fraction (about one sixth) of the flow rate in the centre of the glacier. One of the methods measured the velocity of the last metre of ice, and this method gave movements which were more erratic than the other method, which measured velocity a few metres from the edge. This suggests that protuberances of rock and boulders lodged between the ice and the rock wall cause local variations in flow which are smoothed out in a few metres. The results are discussed in connection with the process of glacial erosion.

Instead of starting with an initially dry, below sea-level basin undergoing glacierization, as was done in an earlier. model, the present computations are based on the existence of an open channel connecting the Ross and Bellingshausen Seas. The period of glacierization begins as the sea in the channel freezes permanently and acquires accumulation, both from local precipitation and transport from the adjacent mountains. Times of growth of the ice shelf, by combined freezing from below and accumulation of 10 and 20 cm. yr.−1, respectively, are determined for the case of a linear temperature profile in the ice. After the ice shelf becomes grounded further growth is by accumulation only. Steady-state temperature profiles for ice sheets 2,300 and 4,300 m. thick are computed under assumption of constant geothermal heat flux of 10−6 cal. cm.−1 sec.−1 and compared with observed temperatures in the 300 m. drill hole at Byrd Station. Basal melting of the 4,300 m. thick ice is found to exist only for the smaller accumulation rate.

The effect of down-slope motion and sinking of ice strata on the vertical temperature profile of the surface layer is studied with aid of the Benfield-Radok formula. Assuming no climatic temperature change and an initial temperature gradient at the ice crest of 1° C. increase per 100 m. increase in depth, the curve of best fit of all those tried is for a sinking rate of 20 cm. yr.−1 and a down-slope speed of 85 m. yr.−1 (2,130 yr. of motion from the crest).

Observations obtained in a long-term monitoring program on Lewis Glacier, Mount Kenya, include measurements of net balance and velocity at a stake network over the period 1978–82, and airborne mapping of the glacier surface topography at the beginning and end of this interval. Horizontal and vertical flow components and mass continuity are evaluated along the longitudinal axis of the glacier.

The largest horizontal velocity at the surface is about 5 m a−1, while the submergent vertical velocity at the surface in the upper, and the emergent component in the lower glacier are of the order of 1–2 m a−1. Horizontal and vertical flow components in the interior of the glacier are calculated from the surface observations under plausible assumptions. Isotachs and streamlines plotted in a longitudinal–vertical cross-section permit the estimation of representative residence times of ice within Lewis Glacier. The largest values for the longest trajectories with submergence at the surface in the uppermost area of the glacier and emergence near the snout are of the order of a few centuries. However, such estimates are compromised, in particular, by the continuing non-equilibrium conditions of Lewis Glacier.

Mass continuity is directly related to the vertical motion field. In the upper area of the glacier the submergence velocity exceeds the rise of glacier surface observed with respect to the stake network, while in the lower glacier the emergent flow component falls short of the local negative net balance. This differing behavior of altitudinal zones is consistent with the fact that actual lowering of the glacier surface topography documented by the repeated airborne mappings is larger than expected from the stake network in the upper but less in the lower glacier. This differing behavior of altitude zones appears mitigated by the tendency for confluence in the upper and diffluence in the lower glacier.

A method of continuously recording the r.f. power returned from a sub-glacial ice/rock or ice/water interface is described. Illustrations of the records produced are given and their relevance to the reconstruction of the small scale roughness of a reflecting surface is discussed.