On the incorporation of unconsolidated sediments in basal ice: present-day examples

• Main Authors: Tison, Jean-Louis, Souchez, Roland, Lorrain, Reginald
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 1989
• Subjects: Glaciologie; Arctic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/29500

The resistance of saprolites to glacier erosion has been ascribed either to their previous frozen character or to their high permeability. A study of basal ice exposures in the Alps and in the Canadian Arctic sheds some light on the incorporation processes of unconsolidated sediments. In the case studied where the ice-bed interface is at the pressure-melting point, fluctuations in the subglacial water film related to grain size changes in the sediments play a major role in their incorporation into the ice. The other examples, taken from areas where the bed is frozen, show that the removal of subglacial sediments can efficiently be carried out by the freezing on process. -Authors SCOPUS: NotDefined.j info:eu-repo/semantics/published