A general result due to Martin can be used to find upper and lower bounds on velocities in steady-creep problems. This method can be applied to glacier flow if ice can be assumed to satisfy a powerlaw stress–strain-rate relation. Bounds on the mean velocity over the glacier cross-section and on the mean velocity on the surface are determined for a particular example (a uniform parabolic channel, with powerlaw exponent 3) and they are shown to bound quite closely the exact solutions due to Nye. Bounds can be found rapidly by hand calculation. The method can be applied to real glacier cross-sections measured in the field.

An examination is made of the Lliboutry theory of glacier sliding. It is concluded that this theory is incompletely developed and therefore it is impossible at present to make meaningful predictions of the sliding velocity from it that might be compared with field data.

Stratigraphic studies of the annual snow layer in the Beartooth Mountains of south-western Montana and on Mount Logan in the St. Elias Range have disclosed a similiar distribution of at least one physical property of the snow pack in the two areas. The average density of the pack, obtained by integrating a series of measurements taken at 5–10 cm. vertical intervals over the total thickness of the annual layer, reaches a maximum value near a mid-point of the total elevation covered by each traverse and decreases linearly toward the elevation extremes. A preliminary hypothesis, relating the distribution of average snow-density values along slopes to a semi-stable zonation of near-surface air temperatures, is presented.

The force F required to separate two ice spheres was measured as a function of environmental temperature T, relative humidity H and the strength E of the external electric field in which the spheres were situated. It was found that over the entire attainable range of T and H, F increased rapidly with increasing E. The increased adhesion was not accompanied by an increase in the rate of growth of the ice bridge between the two spheres and is explicable in terms of Davis’s (1964) calculations of the purely electrostatic forces between two spheres situated in an electric field. The experiments indicate that the rate of growth of snowflakes in a cloud by means of ice crystal aggregation will be markedly enhanced if the cloud is highly electrified.

The sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, is extensively utilized for runways, travel, freight hauling and docking facilities. The safety and efficiency of these operations depend upon a better understanding of the sea-ice bearing strength.

Variations in shear and tensile strength, decreased thickness, salinity changes, internal deterioration and changes of the temperature gradient are all related to and dependent upon snow cover, ambient temperatures and solar radiation. During the austral summer of 1964–65, shear strength decreased from 9.8 kg./cm.2 in October to 6.3 kg./cm.2 in late January and then increased to 8.0 kg./cm2. by 10 February. The salinity of collected brine decreased from 125 p.p.t. in November to 43 p.p.t. in January. Thickness increased until mid-December, then decreased rapidly by bottom melting until break-out in February. In the Cape Armitage shoal area, thickness decreased from 2.5 m. in mid-December to 36 cm. in late January. Snow cover significantly affects the degree of internal deterioration and the amount of strength loss during the summer. Sea ice with more than 6 cm. snow cover is consistently stronger than unprotected ice and deterioration is less. Bearing strength of the sea ice is sufficient for most ordinary loads throughout the period of most extensive use.

This narrow, 600 m. long cirque glacier is apparently composed throughout of alternating layers of ice and sand that strike parallel to the edge of the glacier and dip into the glacier at an angle of 82°. The thickness of the sand layers averages 10 cm., and that of the ice layers 20 cm. The sand layers are generally composed of thin parallel laminations but micro-cross-bedding is present locally. The layers have been broken into angular blocks 0.5 to 3.0 m. long, separated by ice columns connecting adjacent ice layers. The ice layers show thinner zones of contrasting bubble content which bend into the columns separating the sand blocks.

The sand was probably blown into this cirque from the floor of Wright Valley 6 km. south-west and 1,100 m. below. Each pair of sand and ice layers may record accumulation during one year. The steeply dipping yet otherwise undeformed layers clearly prove that rotational movement has taken place. The breaking of the sand layers into blocks is the result of plastic extension within the glacier.

Observations on both the modern and Pleistocene snow lines were made during a journey through the Peruvian Andes. En route observations were supplemented by an evaluation of air photographs in the Servicio Aerofotográfico Nacional in Lima and a survey of the literature. The large-scale variation of the Pleistocene snow-line depression is discussed with respect to possible palaeoclimatic implications.

Studies in the south-eastern part of the Drakensberg mountains and the Basutoland uplands, above the 6,000 ft. (1,830 m.) level, of Southern Africa have yielded evidence for a periglacial regime during the Pleistocene. The limited earlier work in Southern Africa suggested that the Pleistocene climate was too dry for glaciation to have occurred, but the existence of oversteepened slopes, solifluction slumps and cirques is indicative of a periglacial environment. There is some correlation between the respective altitudes and latitudes of these periglacial features.

Observations have been made of the modification produced by a temperature gradient in the shape of air bubbles in natural snow crystals, and also of the shrinkage of the bubbles with time. The rate of shrinkage is governed by a constant which is strongly temperature dependent with an activation energy of about 15.1 kcal./mole, a value sufficiently similar to the activation energy for diffusion of tritium, dielectric relaxation and mechanical relaxation to suggest that atomic diffusion processes may be responsible for all of these phenomena.

In metamorphic rocks a sharp distinction between planar structures (e g. in schiste) and layered structures (e.g. in banded gneisses) is generally made. This same distinction has not been maintained in descriptions of analogous structures in glacial ice. At least part of the problem lies with the use of the term foliation, which, unfortunately, has been applied to both types of structures. On historical and etymological grounds, as well as on the basis of widespread acceptance by petrologists and structural geologists, it is argued that foliation should apply to planar structures in both rocks and glacial ice.

Geophysical evidence indicates that the delta area of the Mackenzie River, Northwest Territories, is affected by tectonic subsidence. Pingos are of sparse occurrence in the Arctic as a whole but they occur in hundreds in the Mackenzie River delta.

In a region of subsidence, as recent sediments pass through the base of permafrost, compaction becomes possible. The resulting water expulsion produces an artesian head responsible for building pingos.

In November and December 1965 accumulation measurements were made at 3 km. intervals and at networks of poles at six photogrammetric arrays on an oversnow traverse from Mount Chapman to “Byrd” station. The results at the photogrammetric arrays, which yield a mean accumulation of 16.4 g. cm.−2 yr.−1 for 1963–65, are compared with values determined from stratigraphic investigations in 1958–59 and in 1962–63, which gave 12.2 g. cm.−2 yr.−1 and 13.2 g. cm.−2 yr.−1, respectively.