Early Discoverers XXXV: Descent of Glaciers: Some Early Speculations on Glacier Flow and Ice Physics

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Walker, J.C.F., Waddington, E.D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1988
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Forbes; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000007115; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000007115

Abstract Scheuchzer’s dilatation theory and Altmann’s rigid sliding theory were the first glacier-flow theories to receive serious scientific attention. When Agassiz began a research program at Unteraargletscher in 1839, he held several incorrect notions about glacier flow. Forbes understood the difficulties with the existing theories, and in the early 1840s he and Agassiz acquired motion, temperature, and structural data that were incompatible with the dilation and sliding theories but were suggestive of flow analogous to that of a viscous fluid. How an apparently brittle rigid solid like ice could flow became the central paradox requiring explanation. Some of the most able physicists of the mid-nineteenth century went through contortions in their largely misguided efforts to explain the viscous behaviour in terms of the known physics of rigid solids. Personality and speculation played a far larger part in their debates than we see in scientific discussions today.