Two experiments were conducted on the drainage system beneath the Lower part of the ablation zone of Storglaciären, a small valley glacier in northern Sweden. In the first experiment, over 70 tracer tests were performed in a cluster of moulins during a 1 month period, at sub-daily intervals. In the second experiment, input- and output-discharge signals were measured on the supraglacial melt stream emptying into a moulin and on the proglacial stream to which the moulin drains. The data from these two experiments are used in an idealized model of the subglacial drainage system to calculate the percentage of the system flowing as an open channel. Results from the tracer experiment suggest that the system is pressurized to within 60-340 m of the snout, while analysis of the discharge data indicates pressurized ronduits to within 0-415 m of the snout.

The subglacial hydrology of the ablation area of Storglaciären, a small valley glacier in northern Sweden, is dramatically affected by a subglacial ridge, or riegel. Water pressures above this riegel are relatively constant, while down-glacier from it they vary significantly. The lower part of the glacier accelerates in response to peaks in basal water pressure. The upper part may be weakly coupled to the lower part during these peaks.

A power-law fit of observed basal water pressures and measured surface velocities yields

where us is the surface velocity and PE is the effective water pressure (ice overburden pressure minus subglacial water pressure). Data from Findelengletscher, reported by Iken and Bindschadler (1986), yield an identical exponent and a coefficient one order of magnitude larger. The similar exponent implies that the process producing the velocity variations on both glaciers is similar. The variations in velocity are inferred to be due to hydraulic jacking on both glaciers.

The assumptions involved in the use of chemically based mixing models for analysis of flow routing of meltwaters in glacierized basins are critically evaluated. The assumption that glacial drainage systems consist of only two primary flow components is arbitrary and must be supported by independent evidence. Recent studies of the processes by which meltwaters acquire solute indicate that the assumption that flow components have unique and constant chemical compositions is unlikely to be correct. Source-water composition and weathering potential will vary over the course of a melt season, and the extent of subglacial weathering is strongly dependent upon such factors as meltwater residence time and the availability of reactive sediment, both of which are known to vary on diurnal to seasonal time-scales. Mixing of flow components does not appear to be confined to the terminal regions of glaciers and is therefore unlikely to be conservative as assumed. A multi-parameter mixing model is applied to the analysis of data on the chemistry of waters sampled from boreholes drilled through Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Switzerland, to demonstrate the range of dissolved species for which the assumption of conservative mixing is violated. The consequences of this violation for quantitative hydrograph separation are shown to be highly significant. The utility of mixing models as a tool for the investigation of glacier hydrological systems is questionable and the results of previous studies are unreliable.

We use surface velocity derived from sequential Landsat imagery and a control method to estimate the basal-friction distribution of a major West Antarctic ice stream. The area-averaged basal stress is approximately 1.4 × 104 Pa, or about 29% of the area-averaged driving stress of 4.9 × 104 Pa. Uncertainty of the derived area-averaged basal stress is difficult to assess and depends primarily on spatial variation of the flow-law rate factor in the constitutive law. Spatial variation associated with depth-averaged temperature variation gives an uncertainty of approximately ±103 Pa. Approximately 60% of the ice stream has a basal-stress magnitude less than 104 Pa, and approximately 30% has less than 103 Pa. These characteristics suggest the presence of a mechanically weak, water-charged subglacial till. Small-scale sticky spots where basal friction exceeds the area-averaged driving stress are scattered irregularly across the subglacial regime and comprise approximately 15% of the ice-stream area. Sticky spots cluster in regions where Landsat imagery suggests structural features in the underlying bedrock.

A record of volumes of jökulhlaups from the subglacial Grímsvötn lake, Vatnajökull, Iceland, has been derived for the period 1934–91. The change in lake volume during jökulhlaups is estimated from the lake area, ice-cover thickness and the drop in lake level. The jökulhlaup volumes have decreased gradually during this period of low volcanic activity and declining geothermal power. The two jökulhlaups in the 1930s each discharged about 4.5 km3 (peak discharge 25-30 × 103m3s−1). In the 1980s, jökulhlaup volumes were 0.6.-1.2 km3 (peak discharge 2 × 103 m3 s−1). The lake level required to trigger a jökulhlaup has risen as an ice dam east of the lake has thickened. Water flow in a jökulhlaup ceases when the base of a floating ice shelf covering Grímsvötn settles to about 1160 m a.s.l. Apparently, the jökulhlaups are cut off when the base of the ice shelf collapses on to a subglacial ridge bordering the lake on its eastern side. The decline in melting rates has resulted in a positive mass balance of the 160-170 km2 Grímsvötn ice-drainage basin. Comparison of maps shows that the average positive mass-balance rate was 0.12 km3 a−1 (25% of the total accumulation) in the period 1946-87. A gradually increasing positive mass balance has prevailed since 1954, reaching 0.23 km3 a−1 in 1976-86 (48% of total accumulation).

Glacial calving is a poorly understood process. This study tests the influence of local environmental variables on the magnitude and frequency distributions of calving behaviour at Glaciar San Rafael, Chile. Near the terminus of the glacier, surface speeds average 17 m d −1 in summer and calving is profuse and continual. The size, location and characteristics of over 7000 calving events were recorded during 32d in 1991 and 1992, together with meteorological, bathymetric and oceanographic data. Mean daily calving exceeds 400 events per day and the mean calving flux is more than 2 Mm3d1. Mean annual calving speed and calving flux are about 4500 m a −1 and 2.0 km3 a−1, respectively. This calving speed is higher than that predicted by the established empirical relationship between tide-water calving speed and water depth. This is surprising, given the low salinity of Laguna San Rafael and that fresh-water calving speeds are commonly much lower than those in ride water. Daily patterns of calving frequency and flux correlate poorly or not at all with meteorological variables, but tidal stage may have some control over the timing of large submarine calving events. Submarine calving produced the largest bergs. However, the relatively small total flux recorded from the submerged pars of the ice cliff may imply unusually rapid melt rates.

Characteristics of the hydrology and motion of Black Rapids and Fels Glaciers, Alaska, were observed from 1986 to 1989. Hydrological measurements included stage, electrical conductivity and suspended-sediment concentration in the discharge stream of each glacier, and were made at 0.5–1 h intervals continuously through most of the melt seasons. Variations in the glacier speed were monitored through the full year at a number of locations along the length of each glacier using time-lapse photography (1 d time resolution), strain meters (0.5–1 h resolution) and seismometers set up to count acoustic emissions. Both glaciers show similar seasonal, diurnal and short-term event changes in hydrological discharges and ice speed. The hydrological behavior is analyzed in terms of a “fast” sub-system composed of surface streams, moulins and large tunnels with discharge that responds rapidly and a “slow” sub-system composed of heterogeneous small passageways through the ice and distributed over the bed that maintain approximately uniform discharge over a day. The liming and amplitude of water discharge in the diurnal cycle indicate that roughly 10–40% of the water is routed directly into the fast system. The remaining 90–60% of the water enters the slow system. Dilution of the solute discharged from the slow system by the variable discharge in the fast system results in changes in water discharge and solute concentration that are approximately equal in relative amplitude and inversely related. A small time lag from discharge maximum (minimum) to solute minimum (maximum) suggests that the fast system is confined to roughly the lowermost 30–40% of the full glacier length. The residence time of water in the fast system is short compared to 1 d. The slow system contains both short- and long-residence time passages. Characteristics of the diurnal cycles are somewhat variable through the melt season, but no systematic evolutionary patterns were discerned even though large changes in the mean discharges of water and solutes occur, which suggests parallel evolution of the variables that control the response of the fast system. Events were characterized by contemporaneous increases in suspended-sediment concentration in the discharge water and distinct changes in straining on the glaciers. Events caused by-increases in melt or precipitation related to weather and events related to release from reservoirs internal to the glaciers could be distinguished based on the changes in electrical conductivity of the discharge water. The correlated changes in sediment discharge and motion of the glaciers indicate that the events were associated with temporary modifications of the slow passages distributed over the bed that allowed enhanced sliding and access of basal water flow to erosion products. Hydrological differences between Black Rapids and Fels Glaciers can be explained by differences in the size of the glaciers. If there is a difference in bed structure that explains the difference in dynamics (surge — Black Rapids Glacier - versus non-surge - Fels Glacier), it does not affect the hydrological parameters that were observed.

During the LeadEx main field experiment, held in April 1992 in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea, a number of large ice stalactites were observed growing under young lead ice. Formation of the stalactites was associated with rafting of the thin, highly saline ice. The rafting caused the brine to drain rapidly from the ice at a temperature well below the freezing point of the surrounding water, which in turn caused ice to form in a hollow cylinder around the brine plume. Within a 15 h period after the rafting event, the stalactites, which were located approximately 10 m apart in a line along the upwind edge of a 150 m wide lead, had grown to a length of 2 m. A detailed structural analysis of the upper part of one of these stalactites revealed that the interior channel, down which the brine flowed, was bounded by a zone of frazil ice that developed into a shell of columnar ice. The growth of the columnar ice was directed radially outward and the c axes of these crystals were oriented perpendicular to their growth direction. Development of the stalactites illustrates the impact ice deformation can have on the process of brine rejection in freezing leads and potentially on the thermohaline structure of the upper ocean in the immediate vicinity of the lead.

The paleoglaciological concept that during the Pleistocene glacial hemi-cycles a super-large, structurally complex ice sheet developed in the Arctic and behaved as a single dynamic system. as the Antarctic ice sheet does today, has not yet been subjected to concerted studies designed to test the predictions of this concept. Yet, it may hold the keys to solutions of major problems of paleoglaciology, to understanding climate and sea-level changes. The Russian Arctic is the least-known region exposed to paleoglaciation by a hypothetical Arctic ice sheet but now it is more open to testing the concept. Implementation of these tests is a challenging task, as the region is extensive and the available data are controversial. Well-planned and coordinated field projects are needed today, as well as broad discussion of the known evidence, existing interpretations and new field results. Here we present the known evidence for paleoglaciation of the Russian Arctic continental shelf and reconstruct possible marine ice sheets that could have produced that evidence.

A new and efficient algorithm for computing the three-dimensional stress and velocity fields in grounded glaciers includes the role of deviatoric stress gradients. A consistent approximation of first order in the aspect of ratio of the ice mass gives a set of eight field equations for the five stress and three velocity components and the corresponding boundary conditions. A coordinate transformation mapping the local ice thickness on to unity and approximating the derivatives in the horizontal direction by centered finite-differences yields five ordinary differential and three algebraic equations. This allows use of the method of lines, starting the integration with prescribed stress and velocity components at the base, and a simple iteration procedure converges rapidly.

The algorithm can be used for a wide rangе of stress-strain-rate relations, as long as strain only depends on deviatoric and shear stresses and on temperature. Sensitivity tests using synthetic and realistic ice geometries show the relevance of normal deviatoric stresses in the solutions for the velocity components even for ice sheets. Stress and velocity fields may deviate substantially from the widely used shallow-ice approximation.

A degree-day glacier mass-balance model is applied to three glaciers in Iceland, Norway and Greenland for which detailed mass-balance measurements are available over a period of several years. Model results are in good agreement with measured variations in the mass balance with elevation over the time periods considered for each glacier. In addition, the model explains 60-80% of the year-to-year variance in the elevation-averaged summer season mass-balance measurements on the glaciers, using a single parameter set for each glacier.

The increase in ablation on the glaciers due to a warming of 2° C is predicted to range from about 1 m w.e. year−1 at the highest elevations to about 2.5 m w.e. year−1 at the lowest elevations. Predicted changes in the winter balance (measured between fixed date) are relatively small, except at the lowest elevations on the Icelandic and Norwegian glaciers where the winter balance is significantly reduced. Equilibrium-line altitudes are raised by 200-300 m on the Icelandic and Norwegian glaciers. Except at the highest elevations, the winter balance of the Icelandic and Norwegian glaciers is predicted to decrease even if the warming is accompanied by a 10% increase in the precipitation.

No firm evidence of a climate-related variation in the degree-day factors or in the temperature lapse rate on the same glacier could be found. The model, furthermore, reproduces large variations in the mass balance with elevation and from year to year on each glacier using the same parameter set. We assume, therefore, that these parameters will not change significantly for the climate scenarios considered here.

The prediction of run-up and run-out of dry-flowing avalanches is very important for land-use planning, design of run-out zone defenses and construction of risk maps in avalanche terrain. In this paper, we present a numerical dynamics model to predict the stop position of the tip of these avalanches when friction coefficients (internal and external), initial flow depth and incoming speed are specified for known path geometry in the run-out zone. We also compare our model to that in the Swiss guidelines and to field examples. The results of these calculations clearly define model differences and the implications of different choices of friction coefficients.

A physically based mathematical model of the coupled lake, lake ice, snow and atmosphere system is developed for studying terrestrial-atmospheric interactions in high-elevation and high-latitude regions. The ability to model lake-ice freeze-up, break-up, total ice thickness and ice type offers the potential to describe the effects of climate change in these regions. Model output is validated against lake-ice observations made during the winter of 1992–93 in Glacier National Park, Montana. U.S.A. The model is driven with observed daily atmospheric forcing of precipitation, wind speed and air temperature. In addition to simulating complete energy-balance components over the annual cycle, model output includes ice freeze-up and break-up dates, and the end-of-season clear ice, snow-ice and total ice depths for two nearby lakes in Glacier National Park, each in a different topographic setting. Modeled ice features are found to agree closely with the lake-ice observations.

Model simulations illustrate the key role that the wind component of the local climatic regime plays on the growth and decay of lake ice. The wind speed affects both the surface temperature and the accumulation of snow on the lake-ice surface. Higher snow accumulations on the lake ice depress the ice surface below the water line, causing the snow to become saturated and leading to the formation of snow-ice deposits. In regions having higher wind speeds, significantly less snow accumulates on the lake-ice surface, thus limiting snow-ice formation. The ice produced by these two different mechanisms has distinctly different optical and radiative properties, and affects the monitoring of frozen lakes using remote-sensing techniques.

The modified ring test is used to determine the fracture toughness of synthetic, granular, fresh-water ice average density 0.891 Mg m−3 and firn (average density 0.605 Mg m 3) from depths between 26 and 27.2 m in the E core of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project II. Average fracture toughness is 145.7kPa m2 for the manufactured ice and 108.6kPam½ for the firn. Comparison between the ice and firn suggests that ice-fracture toughness decreases with decreasing density (i.e. increasing porosity), suggesting lateral and vertical variations in the near-surface fracture resistance of glaciers and ice sheets may be related to firn densification. The modified ring test has many advantages over conventional, notch-based specimens in that complications which arise in notched specimens due to crack-length, loading-rate, notch-acuity and specimen-size effects are irrelevant for a modified ring-specimen geometry.

Blue-ice areas (BIAs) are an extreme example of a local mass-balance gradient and are furthermore reasonably stable in time and space owing to local feed-back mechanisms. A meteorological experiment, performed in and around a blue-ice area in Dronning Maud Land. East Antarctica, showed that during drifting-snow conditions surface wind speed over the blue ice behind the mountain barrier is equal to that away from the mountains, when corrected for surface roughness and stability. This implies that use of diagnostic katabatic wind models to estimate divergence of drifting snow can be extended to the situation where nunataks are involved in preventing the drifting snow from passing, which is the case for most BIAs. A diagnostic model is tested for a two-dimensional profile in Terre Adélie. after which it is applied to entire East Antarctica. The present order-of-magnitude estimate shows that areas sensitive to blue-ice formation appear where precipitation is low and mean annual wind speed is high, i.e. in Dronning Maud Land and the drainage basin of Lambert Glacier. The results appeared to be especially sensitive to a change in inversion strength: a decrease in inversion strength weakens the katabatic flow, and thus the amount of snowdrift transport, reducing the area where BIAs can develop.

The ice cap on Nelson Island in the South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica, was studied between 1985 and 1989. The ice cap has an average thickness of 120 m. it is temperate, exists under the sub-Antarctic maritime climate and almost completely covers the island. Owing to intense percolation of meltwater (and, to some extent, liquid precipitation), the snow-firn layer is in the soaked facies, with a firn-ice transition at a depth of 25-26 m at the summit. A force-balance model suggests that the ice is almost linearly viscous but has a high viscosity. The model further suggests that basal sliding makes a larger contribution to the ice movement than does ice deformation. From 1970 to 1988. the average accumulation rate was 120 kg m−2a−1 at the centre, and between 1985 and 1989 the equilibrium-line elevation averaged 110m a.s.l. Analysis of chemical impurities in the surface snow suggests that the precipitation source is mainly local marine air masses and that human activity has already exerted a detectable influence on the local environment.

The problem of improving the spatial resolution of ice-sheet elevations derived from satellite-altimeter observations is investigated theoretically in two dimensions. An equation for the echo is described that allows the elevation to be determined In linear operations on the echo. An approximate solution of the equation is explored to illustrate the behaviour of the solution. The modifications necessary to consider a regularly sampled solution are described and the effects of echo fluctuations on the reconstructed surface are considered. Numerical examples are described. It is shown that, in general terms, the resolution may be limited by sampling or by echo fluctuations but that in the case of current practical measurements it is the sampling that determines the resolution. This resolution is smaller than has been considered possible hitherto. Limitations of the method are discussed together with extensions to a wider class of problems including three-dimensional reconstructions.

A new device for measuring air content in polar ice has been designed, built and tested with 22 samples of Antarctic ice. The new technique is based on the barometric method which implies: (1) air extraction under vacuum by melting refreezing of the ice sample placed in a calibrated cell, and (2) accurate air-pressure and temperature measurements. The new apparatus simplifies the experimental procedure, decreases the duration of measurement and can eventually be used in the field. It provides results with an accuracy equivalent to or better than other methods previously used.