A theory is developed to describe the vertical percolation of water in isothermal snow. The general theory of Darcian flow is reviewed to establish a reasonable physical basis for the construction of a model. It is shown that in simple gravity drainage, capillarity is negligible compared with gravity since values of water saturation are generally in the “mid-range”. It is postulated that the permeability to the water phase increases as a certain function of the water saturation, and porosity is assumed to decrease linearly with depth. Ice layers and other inhomogeneities are treated in the theory by considering the permeability of the snow with the inhomogeneities included. A method by which this value of permeability can be calculated is presented using the method of characteristics.

The theory is applied to the Seward Glacier firn where Sharp measured water fluxes at various depths. A periodic surface flux is assumed and the particular solution for water flux at any depth is given. From this solution the wave forms passing each depth are constructed and compared with the measured ones. Although the experimental data are affected by the presence of ice layers, the comparison between theory and experiment is favorable and the theory is thought to be essentially correct.

Relative grain-boundary energies in ice were measured as a function of mismatch angles made by the c-axes or a-axes in grains, using ice specimens having triple grain boundaries. It was found that the Read–Shockley equation for grain-boundary energy was valid for grain boundaries tilted between 0° and 15°. Angles of the solid–vapour grain-boundary groove in ice were measured by the use of micro-interferometry at grain-boundary grooves covered with extremely thin metalic foil. The data were compared with those measured by a silvered replica of grain-boundary grooves.

Data from Norwegian glaciers and statistical tests are presented which suggest that vertical net-budget gradient, ablation gradient and equilibrium-line altitude can be taken as characteristic for any particular glacier. The usefulness of these conceptual models as predictive techniques for the regional determination of glacier net budget when only a small sample is available, and in palaeo-net-budget studies, is shown to be limited.

Partial differential equations are derived to describe isotope fractionation between ice and water phases in temperate snow caps and glaciers. Numerical solutions are obtained and shown to be consistent with laboratory experiments and measurements of deuterium concentrations in temperate glaciers. The process of isotope fractionation as described is manifested by application of the model to tritium fractionation in temperate snow caps.

Polycrystalline ice at the melting point has been observed in the laboratory to contain veins of water at the places where three grains meet. Under uniaxial compression lenticular water inclusions appeared at grain boundaries perpendicular to the stress, while the nearby vein began to freeze. A similar effect occurred in tension on grain boundaries parallel to the stress. When the stress on the plane of the boundary was a pure shear stress, no effect was observed. The water lenses produced by stress increased in size and decreased in number after the stress was removed. The effect under compression is explained quantitatively by the combined effects of curvature and pressure on the melting point of an ice–water interface. The rate of formation of the lenses and of their coarsening is greatly reduced by the internal pressures set up in the lenses as a result of expansion on freezing and contraction on melting; transient creep to accommodate volume changes is an essential part of the process. The effect in a grain boundary under tension may arise from pressure caused by sliding on other grain boundaries; it was absent in a bicrystal.

It is concluded that internal melting and freezing at grain boundaries and veins will occur in temperate glacier ice, with some effect, not discussed here, on its permeability to water. Any pure solid at its melting point which has a dihedral angle for the liquid phase in contact with a grain boundary between 0° and 60° should show similar behaviour, in that non-hydrostatic stress should cause liquid to move away from triple junctions between grains and into grain boundaries. There may be implications for the Frank theory of the upwelling of melt fluid in the Earth’s upper mantle.

Design details of a portable, light-weight, seismic recording system are presented together with data concerning sensitivity and frequency response. Field procedures and methods are described with emphasis on coupling the hydrophone detector to waves propagating in the glacier ice. Two of the field-recorded signals are reproduced here: the first resulted from a small serac avalanche in the ice fall and the second was produced by an unusual, local source of glacier noise.

A two-dimensional finite element computer program has been used to compute the elastic stress distribution in realistic multi-layered snow packs. Computations have been done on three-layered and five-layered snow packs intended to simulate conditions on the Lift Gully at Berthoud Pass, Colorado. Calculations have been performed to determine the effect of a layer of new snow and the effect of a weak sub-layer. Stress levels were obtained which are reasonable compared with available snow strength data.

Investigations were made of the ice structures, air-bubble size distributions, and heat exchanges of water drops frozen freely-floating in the purified air of a vertical wind tunnel. Drop diameters varied from 1 to 8 mm, air temperature from −1 to −18.5°C; the ice phase was initiated artificially. It was found that the mass of ice in a freezing drop increases linearly with time. Both mean air bubble and crystal sizes decrease in a regular fashion as the air temperature decreases, whereas the bubble concentration increases. Histograms show a preferred tangential orientation of the projections into the plane of observation of the crystallographic hexagonal axis (c′-axes), a preference which weakens as the temperature decreases.

Techniques for making precise uniaxial tests for strength and deformability of ice are described. Results are given for tests made in uniaxial tension and uniaxial compression at constant displacement rate, using bubbly polycrystalline ice. These results include stress/strain curves, elastic moduli, rupture or yield strengths, and failure strains, all for a range of strain-rates. A few results for ice doped with hydrogen fluoride are also given. The fracture mechanism for ice is discussed, and the test results are compared with data reported by previous investigators.

Quantitative investigations have been made of ice-cored dirt cones on Bersaerkerbræ in north-east Greenland. Experiments were also undertaken to evaluate field observations. Measurements included: maximum cone dimensions, sediment thickness and particle size, cone growth rates, slope angles and the temperature distribution within the debris layer and ice core. Particle size, which has not been stressed in previous studies, and related liquid consistency limits, appear as the dominant controls in cone formation, independent of debris thickness within the observed range of 10 mm to 125 mm. A threshold grain-size for dirt-cone inception was found, between 0.2 mm and 0.6 mm. The growth of cones was usually not more than 50% of the ablation over “clean” ice. Temperature measurements within dirt cones has enabled heat-flow studies to be made, evaluating the thermal conductivity of a sediment layer and the heat transfer involved in melting the ice core. A simple model of dirt-cone dynamics is proposed, characterized by negative feedbacks and describing a steady-state system.

The absorption of radio waves propagating through naturally occurring waters varies greatly with the electrical conductivity. Glacier melt water is very transparent and the attenuation by melt water layers is due to reflexion of power, whereas the attenuation of sea-water layers is due to absorption. The attenuation of soaked firn is usually prohibitive if the liquid is brine but it should not be a serious obstacle to radio echo strength if the liquid is rain-water or melt water. However, the magnitude of the scattered power can become greater than that from continuous (bedrock) reflectors if the size of the irregularities in the medium is large (approaching the radio wavelength in ice). Echo power formulae show that ice lenses may have the most serious effect and that low radio frequencies will be necessary to combat this.

Using geometrical arguments, Haefeli developed a stress analysis for slabs of compressible viscous materials. His analysis was based on a key parameter called the creep angle. A generalization of the creep angle, called the deformation-rate coefficient, is derived by replacing geometrical arguments with continuum mechanics. Once the deformation-rate coefficient is found from in situ measurements, the stress field of the slab can be determined from a set of hyperboic partial differential equations.

This paper elaborates on the note by Andrews and others (1971). It demonstrates that one may obtain any arbitrary value of r between two series of observations by adjusting the mean values of the two series before cumulating them. A computer simulation is used to illustrate the behavior of random Normal series cumulated under varying conditions.