In the heat-pump effect developed by Robin (1976), pressure-melting within the basal ice mass, as distinct from processes at the ice–bedrock interface, can be responsible for the formation of excess water in zones of high-pressure ice up-stream of obstacles. This water is squeezed out of the ice by the pressure and can refreeze at the interface to form regelation ice down-stream.

The peculiar chemical characteristics of regelation ice at the base of Glacier de Tsijiore Nouve in the Swiss Alps can only be explained by refreezing of this squeezed water. Melting at the interface up-stream of bed protuberances and refreezing of these melt waters downstream, as implied in weertman’s theory, can be excluded in this case.

This paper is published in full in Nature, Vol. 273, No. 5662, 1978, p. 454–56,