A new classification of snow on the ground is based on the major physical processes involved in the metamorphism of a snow cover. The major divisions are based on (I) the mechanical damage to snow crystals during precipitation, (II) the transport of water vapor at constant temperature because of surface-energy differences, (III) the transport of water vapor along a thermal gradient, and (IV) firnification because of melting and refreezing, and pressure consolidation.

The fundamental equation for the longitudinal stress and strain-rate gradient For ice masses with small slope (Budd, (1968)) has been derived exactly for any slope by Nye (1969) who shows that by using a variable longitudinal axis inclination, parallel to the surface, this equation takes on its simplest form. However for the integration of this equation along the ice mass to obtain stress and strain-rates it is necessary to use a fixed axis direction. Here the equation is derived generally for a longitudinal axis of arbitrary inclination, from which the relation between the expressions for the fundamental equation with respect to any longitudinal axis inclination such as parallel to the surface, parallel to the base or horizontal is readily discerned.

An expression for the longitudinal strain-rate is derived to obtain the flow law from longitudinal stress and strain-rate measurements. A single “generalized viscosity function” is introduced to avoid the complication of both the power flow-law parameters varying with stress.

The use of well known simple periodic solutions of the two-dimensional biharmonic stress equation for studying the flow over undulations of an ice mass of small surface slope is examined. The model considered is one in which most of the shear (deformation or. sliding) takes place near the base and the upper part moves largely as a block, with longitudinal strain-rates varying linearly with the longitudinal stress deviations. For bedrock perturbations of a given wavelength the steady-state surface shape consists of similar waves but out of phase by ½π, such that the steepest slope occurs over the highest bedrock; and the amplitude is reduced by a “damping factor”, depending on the speed, viscosity, ice thickness and wavelength.

Minimum damping occurs for λm ≈ 3.3 times the ice thickness, while waves much longer or much shorter than this are almost completely damped out. The energy dissipation and the resistance to the ice flow is also a maximum for an undulation scale of several times the ice thickness, whereas the effects of small basal irregularities die out exponentially with distance into the ice, and only have an effect in so far as the average basal stress is related to the average surface slope. As a result of this a revision of present glacier sliding theories becomes possible.

Various predictions of the theory have been confirmed from spectral analysis of surface and bedrock profiles of ice caps.

The first successful radar echo soundings through glacier ice in Canada were carried out by the Dominion Observatory in 1965 on an outlet glacier of the Penny Ice Cap in Baffin Island. An unmodified 440 MHz SCR-718 radar altimeter was used, of the type that is readily and inexpensively available on the surplus market. The radar soundings were generally in agreement, within the range of the reading accuracy of the oscilloscope (± 15 m), with depths obtained seismically, gravimetrically, and by the electrical resistivity method. The minimum and maximum recorded depths were 45 m and 550 m, respectively. The pip positions on the standard oscilloscope were recorded visually. This recording method was not satisfactory, but for future use the instrument could easily be modified to incorporate a larger oscilloscope with continuous photographic recording. Use of the relatively high carrier frequency of 440 MHz (compared with the more customary frequency of about 35 MHz) allows the use of smaller antennas and results in better resolution of the bedrock surface.

A method of estimating siding velocity is presented. It rests on few assumptions, one of which is that longitudinal strain-rate varies linearly with depth. The flow law of ice is not used. To apply it, the sliding velocity at one point must be known. The method is used to calculate the sliding velocity at twelve points on Athabasca Glacier. These values are not related to calculated basal shear stresses. Thus one or more of the following statements must be true: (1) basal shear stress cannot be calculated by the conventional formula, (2) the roughness of the glacier bed varies from place to place, (3) sliding velocity does not obey Weertman's formula. Analysis of seven published measurements of sliding velocity leads to the same conclusion.

In 1957 through 1962 six deep holes were drilled by means of specially developed electrically powered hotpoints, 4 cm diameter aluminum pipes were placed in them, and annual inclinometer surveys were made to investigate the deformation field and flow law of the ice at depth. Although a strongly maritime climate with moderate temperatures implies that lower Blue Glacier should be temperate, freezing at depths as great as 200 m, sometimes even in summer, seriously hindered inclinometer surveys. This freezing cannot be due solely to chilling by winter cold and to leakage into initially dry pipes, but may also be due to wintertime changes of water Table in the glacier and to contamination of the ice by antifreeze. Another possibility, residual subfreezing zones carried down from the ice fall, seems unlikely.

Because the relatively inextensible pipe slips lengthwise in the deforming hole, observations of pipe motion at best give only the two components of ice velocity perpendicular to the hole. Thus, a single hole gives two independent equations connecting the nine unknown derivatives of the velocity components; two holes give four equations: and three or more give at most six. Incompressibility of the ice, when applicable gives another. The remaining unknowns must be either neglected or estimated from assumptions about the flow field. At the Blue Glacier holes the longitudinal strain-rate is less than about 0.01 per year, becoming more extensional down-glacier and more compressional at depth, because the holes were moving through a reach in which the surface steepens and the bed becomes more steep-sided and flat-bottomed. Although the effective strain-rates are only about 0.01 to 0.1 per year, so that errors are relatively large, they are in reasonable agreement with flow laws deduced from laboratory experiments by Glen, from tunnel contraction by Nye, and from deformation of Athabasca Glacier bore holes by Paterson and Savage, except that in the range of strain-rates covered the viscosities found for Blue Glacier are about half those derived from the other studies.

A more detailed examination is made of the stress-generated ice crystallization features already discussed by LaChapelle (1968), using mainly thin-section techniques. The crystallization features on the walls of a tunnel within the Blue Glacier are localized at fine-grained layers and are fed by liquid water traveling along grain boundaries within the wall and within the deposits themselves. The water filling the crevasse encountered at the end of the tunnel was freezing uniformly to the crevasse walls as well as forming Thomson crystals within the water, and the evidence points to an important role for constitutional super-cooling in the Thomson crystal formation. The forms of most of the Thomson crystals are explainable qualitatively by beat flow effects.

During drilling in the Athabasca Glacier in April 1968, a cavity containing water was punctured at a depth of 9.2 m below the ice surface. Upon removing the drill, water gushed from the bore hole for about 55 s indicating an excess pressure of at least 0.25 bar within the cavity. The surrounding ice was slightly below the pressure melting point, and the excess pressure was apparently generated by the reduction in volume of the cavity caused by freezing of some of the water within it.

An interpretation is proposed of the phenomenon of splitting of ice dendrites growing from supercooled water and of their orientation at an angle α to the basal plane. Both phenomena are related to the instabilities which develop on the dendritic cap when the ratio Vc/Va of the growth velocities in the direction of the c- and a-axes exceeds a certain limit. The different interface supercoolings, (δTi)a and (δTi)c at the tip and at the sides of the dendrite cap are considered. Although Vc/Va increases with the bath supercooling ΔT it is found that Vc ≪ Va for (δTi)c = (δTi)a through the whole range investigated (o < ΔT ≤ 18 deg). The increase of α with the concentration of solutes is also qualitatively explained. Considering the kinetic theory of the molecular growth mechanism, the results obtained for Vc as a function of (δTi)c would indicate that most of the studied interval must correspond to the transitional regime of growth.

Segregation of chemical impurities in ice formed from very dilute solutions was observed autoradiographically, using radioactive 22NaCl or H36Cl as β-ray tracers. When water containing such radioactive solutes was frozen, the segregation of solute occurred primarily along grain boundaries and partly in grains. Successive autoradiography enabled us to observe the heterogeneous distributions of segregated impurities in ice.

Three potholes and a narrow channel cut into bedrock in a side-hill position were observed beneath an Irish Sea till west of Wolverhampton, England. The potholes and the channel are believed to have been cut by subglacial or latero-glacial streams flowing beneath or immediately beside the Irish Sea ice sheet. They were later choked by sand and gravel from this ice sheet and capped by till which ended the glaciofluvial deposition. Deposits below and above the till have been 14C dated at 30 655 and 13 490 years B.P. at localities between 13 and 27 km north of the trench section described.

Much of the history of British geological thought in the second quarter of the nineteenth century centered on problems which are now explained by reference to the events of the Ice Age. This paper reviews the data and theories then current among British geologists as the background of the British response to Louis Agassiz’s “modern” theory of a glacial epoch. Today, as we read Agassiz’s amazing speculation, our own sympathy for the striking accuracy of his ideas masks from us the difficulty they faced in gaining acceptance. By first examining the context into which the glacial theory was introduced, we can then appreciate the novelty of Agassiz's efforts and understand the long delay in their achieving prominence. The present examination suggests that this delay was due to the unfortunate merger of Agassiz’s new ideas with the older drift theory of Charles Lyell.

This note describes the series of seven maps at scales 1 : 1 000 000 showing the distribution of glaciers in Canada, with indication of information sources.

This paper deals with the influence on the surface profile of the Greenland ice sheet, of an accumulation which increases between the ice divide and the coast, and of the thermal softening of the lowermost layers. It is concluded that the form of the surface of the profile measured by E.G.I.G. can be described by Glen's law with the exponent n = 3.5. The assumption is made that the bottom differs everywhere from the pressure melting point by a constant amount. This assumption is dropped in the second part of the paper. On the basis of the measured surface profile it is shown that the maximum increase of the bottom temperature is a few degrees within a range of 300 km. In view of the increasing surface temperature and heat of friction towards the outer edge it is concluded that, relatively close to the ice divide, that ice at the bottom must be temperate. Therefore we concluded that friction forces are preventing the ice from slipping on the bedrocks.

The extinction coefficient for the transmission of light through snow cover is related to the grain size and density of the snow cover. The connection is made by means of an empirical relation between the latter parameters and the air permeability and by the Carmen–Kozney relation between the air permeability and specific surface of a porous medium. The results are compared with a set of measurements found in the literature with fair agreement between the predicted and measured values of the extinction coefficient.