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Further on the Evaporation and Melting of Snow at High Altitudes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2017

J. E. Church*
Affiliation:
Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station, Reno, Nevada, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Type
Correspondence
Copyright
Copyright © International Glaciological Society 1953

The Editor,

The Journal of Glaciology

Sir,

Supplementing Dr. Robert P. Sharp’s letter in the Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 1, No. 10, p. 583, there is certainly melting at 12,000 ft.Footnote and higher, but one half or more of the snow is lost by evaporation. This is what Francois Matthes meant in his “Ablation of snow-fields at high altitudes by radiant solar heat,” Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 1934 p. 380–85. I am glad to defend him and in support of this I quote below from a letter from myself to Oliver Kehrlein, Chairman of the Glacier Committee of the Sierra Club and the Glacier Sub-committee of the American Geophysical Union.

I also append extracts from other letters showing that final pronouncement is not easy.

References

1000 ft.=304.8 m.