The Editors,

The Journal of Glaciology

Sirs,

In connection with your note on “The Hardness of Ice and Aerial Erosion in the first issue of this Journal (Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 33), it may be of interest to some of your readers who wish to follow up this matter that I have called attention to the corrasive effects of drifting snow at low temperatures in a note published in the American Journal of Science (Vol. 237, 1939, pp. 145–8). Here references may also be found to earlier papers dealing with the hardness of snow at various temperatures, and observations are quoted which seem to suggest corrasive action of drifting snow.

It should, however, be remembered that wind velocity is also an important factor. It seems likely that drifting soft snow at high velocities has greater corrasive power than hard snow drifting at low speeds. The impact of ice grains driven along at great velocity will be able to corrade rocks which are harder than the ice at the prevailing temperature. Observations are still very scanty on this subject.