Disentangling creep and isothermal metamorphism during snow settlement with X-ray tomography

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Bernard, Antoine, Hagenmuller, Pascal, Montagnat, Maurine, Chambon, Guillaume
• Other Authors: Centre d'Etudes de la Neige (CEN), Centre national de recherches météorologiques (CNRM), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG ), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Météo-France-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Erosion torrentielle neige et avalanches (UR ETGR (ETNA)), Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Snow mechanics; snow microstructure; snow physics; [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; [SDE.IE]Environmental Sciences/Environmental Engineering; [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03906971; https://hal.science/hal-03906971/document; https://hal.science/hal-03906971/file/Bernard2022_disentangling-creep-and-isothermal-metamorphism-during-snow-settlement-with-x-ray-tomography.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2022.109

International audience Once fallen, snow settles due to the combined effects of metamorphism and deformation of the ice matrix under gravity. To understand how these coupled processes affect snow evolution, we performed oedometric compression tests and continuously monitored the snow microstructure with X-ray tomography. Centimetric samples with an initial density between 200 and 300 kg m −3 were followed during an initial sintering phase and under two different loads of 2.1 and 4.7 kPa at −8 • C for ∼1 week. The microstructure captured at a voxel size of 8.5 μm was characterized by density, specific surface area (SSA) and two metrics related to bond network, namely the Euler characteristic and the minimum cut surface. Load-induced creep of the ice matrix was observed only for sufficiently low values of initial density (<290 kg m −3 in our tests), and was shown to be associated to a significant increase of the number of bonds. Application of the load, however, did not affect the individual bond size nor the SSA, which appeared to be mainly controlled by isothermal metamorphism. The uniaxial compression did not induce any creation of anisotropy on the microstructural characteristics. Overall, our results show that, for the considered conditions, the deformation of the ice matrix mainly leads to a reduction of the pore space and an increase of the coordination number, while metamorphism mainly affects the grain and bond sizes.