Chapter V: The Work of Snow and Ice (2)

As the ice advances into new territory it acquires additional basal load, partly by rasping, partly by plucking, partly by freezing to it, and partly in other ways. One of these ways may be illustrated by the sequence of events when the end of a glacier advances on a very large bowlder. As the ice approaches it, the reflection of heat from it melts the adjacent edge of the ice, making a slight reëntrant. With farther advance, the ice closes in against and around the bowlder, and finally carries it along in the bottom of the moving mass. In some cases, especially when its advance is rapid, the ice may push débris in front of itself. Even where this is the case, the amount of material pushed forward is generally slight, partly because the extreme edge of the ice often fails to rest on the land in summer, when the movement is greatest, being melted from below by the heat of the surface over which it is spreading (see Fig. 252), and partly because the earth in front of the glacier is frozen during a large part of the year. In this condition, the earthy matter has greater resistance than the ice, and the latter rides over it. Superglacial material may be acquired during movement by the fall of débris from cliffs, or by the descent of avalanches.

=Conditions influencing rate of erosion.=—An obstructive attitude of the surface toward the movement of the ice is as necessary for effective erosion as the movement of the ice itself. Advancing over a flat surface, ice ordinarily inflicts but little wear, since there is little for it to get hold of. So slight is the abrasive power of ice under these conditions that it frequently overrides and buries the soil with more or less of its herbaceous vegetation. But while a certain measure of roughness of surface is favorable for glacial erosion, the topography may be so uneven as to seriously impede the ice. Erosion is probably at its maximum, so far as influenced by topography, when the roughness of the surface is such as to offer notable catchment for the basal ice, but not such as to impede its motion very seriously. The amount of relief favorable for the greatest erosion increases with increasing thickness of the ice.

Other conditions which influence erosion by ice are (1) the amount of loose or slightly attached débris on the surface, (2) the resistance of the rock, (3) the slope of the surface, (4) the thickness of the ice, (5) the rate of movement, and (6) the abundance and character of the débris which the ice has to work with. The effect of the first five of these conditions is evident. The effect of the last is less simple. Clean ice passing over a smooth surface of solid rock has little effect upon it; but a rock-shod glacier will abrade the same surface notably. The effect of this abrasion is shown in the grooves and scratches (_striæ_) which the stones in the bottom of the ice inflict on the surface of the rock over which they pass (Figs. 253, 255, and 256). At the same time the stones in the ice are themselves worn both by abrasion with the bottom, and with one another (Fig. 254). It does not follow, however, that the more material in the bottom of the ice the greater the erosion it effects; for with increase of débris there may be decrease of motion[131] and, beyond a certain point, the decrease of motion seriously interferes with the efficiency of erosion. When any considerable thickness of ice at the bottom of the glacier is full of débris, this loaded basal portion may approach stagnancy, and the lower limit of considerable movement may lie between the loaded ice below and the relatively clean ice above. A moderate, but not an excessive load of débris is, therefore, favorable for great erosion. Something depends, too, on the character of the load. Coarse, hard, and angular débris is a more effective instrument of erosion than fine, soft, or rounded material. The adverse influence of the overloading of the ice on its motion has been likened to the stiffening of a viscous liquid by the addition of foreign matter, but it may better perhaps be referred to the destruction of the granular-crystalline continuity on which glacier motion probably depends.

From the preceding statement, it is evident that erosion is not equally effective at all points beneath a glacier. So far as concerns the ice itself, erosion is not most effective at the end of a valley glacier, or at the edge of an ice sheet, for here the strength of movement is too slight and the load too great; nor is the most effective erosion at the source or near it, for though the ice may here be thick, the movement is slow and the load likely to be slight. Ice conditions only being considered, erosion is most effective somewhere between the source and the terminus, and probably much nearer the latter than the former. The conditions of the surface over which the ice passes may be such as to vary the place of greatest erosion widely. Thus in an Alpine glacier, erosion may be most effective at the _Bergschrund_ because the slope here favors “plucking.” Here, notable amphitheatres (_cirques_) are sometimes excavated. After the glacier disappears, the bottom of the cirque is often seen to contain rock basins (Fig. 257). Glacial cirques abound in mountains where glaciers once existed, but from which they have now disappeared. The cirques of the Bighorn mountains of Wyoming (Pl. XIX) are examples.

=Summary.=—In summary it may be said that rapidly moving ice of sufficient thickness to be working under goodly pressure, shod with a sufficient but not excessive quantity of hard-rock material, passing over incoherent or soft formations possessing a topography of sufficient relief to offer some resistance, and yet too little to retard seriously the progress of the ice, will erode most effectively.

=Varied nature of glacial débris.=—From its mode of erosion it will readily be seen that the bottom of a glacier may be charged with various sorts of material. There may be (1) bowlders which the ice has picked up from the surface, or which it has broken off from projecting points of rock over which it has passed; (2) smaller pieces of rock of the size of cobbles, pebbles, etc., either picked up by the ice from its bed or broken off from larger masses; (3) the fine products (rock-flour) produced by the grinding of the débris in the ice on the rock-bed over which it passes, and similar products resulting from the rubbing of stones in the ice against one another; and (4) sand, clay, soil, vegetation, etc., derived from the surface overridden. Thus the materials which the ice carries (_drift_) are of all grades of coarseness and fineness, from large bowlders to fine clay. The coarser material may be angular or round at the outset, and its form may be changed and its surface striated as it is moved forward. Whether one sort of material or another predominates, depends primarily on the nature of the surface overridden.

PART OF THE BIGHORN MOUNTAIN RANGE, WYOMING.
U. S. Geol. Surv.]

A SECTION OF THE CALIFORNIA COAST NEAR SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA.
U. S. Geol. Surv.]

=The topographic effects of glacial erosion.=—In passing through its valley, an alpine glacier deepens and widens its bottom and smooths its slopes up to the upper limit of the ice. It tends to change a V-shaped valley (Fig. 258) into a U-shaped one (Fig. 259). The change in topography at the upper limit of glaciation is often marked (Figs. 260 and 261).

The deepening of a valley by glacial erosion may throw its tributaries out of topographic adjustment. Thus if a main valley is lowered 100 feet by glacial erosion while its tributary is not deepened, the lower end of the latter will be 100 feet above the former when the ice disappears. Such a valley is called a _hanging valley_ (Figs. 262 and 263). Such valleys are of common occurrence in regions recently glaciated, but now ice-free. Examples are common in the western mountains of North America and elsewhere.

Ice-caps which overspread the surface irrespective of valleys and hills, tend to reduce the angularities of the surface. Hills and ridges are cut down and smoothed (Figs. 264 and 265); but since valleys parallel to the direction of movement are deepened at the same time, it is doubtful if the relief of the surface is commonly reduced by the erosion of an ice-cap.

=Fiords.=—A glacier descending into the head of a narrow bay may gouge out the bay to a very considerable depth, causing its head to recede. When the ice finally melts, the bay may be a fiord. Thus have arisen the glacial features of many of the fiords of high-latitude coasts, and many of the glaciers of those coasts are now making fiords (Fig. 266). Fiords also arise in other ways. Coasts indented by fiords are likely to be bordered by islands.

=The positions in which débris is carried.=—As a result of the methods by which a glacier becomes loaded, there are three positions in which the débris is carried: (1) the basal or subglacial, (2) the englacial, and (3) the superglacial. The material picked up or rubbed off from the surface over which the ice moves is normally carried forward in the base of the ice; while that which falls on the surface is usually carried in the form of surface moraines. In the former position the drift is basal; in the latter, superglacial. It is doubtful if much débris is moved along beneath (that is, strictly below the bottom of) the ice, though the movement of the latter would have a tendency to drag or urge along with it the loose material of its bed. If drift were carried forward in such positions, it would be strictly _subglacial_.

The basal load of a glacier is constantly being mixed with new accessions derived from ground over which the ice is passing, and this admixture tells the story of the work done by the bottom of the ice. The englacial and superglacial material, on the other hand, is normally borne from the place of origin to the place of deposition without such intermixture. It is a case of “local” versus “through” transportation.

=Transfers of load.=—While the origin of the load usually determines its position, exceptions and complications arise from the transfer of load from one position to another, and from the gradation of one horizon into another.

Most of the débris gathered by ice is acquired at its bottom. While such material is basal _at the outset_, some of it may find itself above the bottom a little later. Thus when ice passes over a hill (Fig. 267) the bottom of the ice rends débris from the top of the hill. When it descends from one level to another there is a similar result (Fig. 268). To the lee of the hill the ice from either side may close in under that which came over the top, in which case the débris derived from the top of the hill by the bottom of the overriding ice will be well up in the ice. It has passed from an initial basal to a subsequent englacial position. The change does not usually involve an actual rise of the material, but rather a decline. If carried upward at all, the upward movement is temporary only, and incident to the passage of the ice over the hill, or to other local causes. The englacial débris may be little or much above the basal zone according to the height of the elevation overridden.

Superglacial débris may obviously become englacial by falling into crevasses or by being carried down by descending waters. Either superglacial or englacial débris may become basal by the same means.

From their form and position, there is less ice-free land in immediate association with ice-caps than with valley glaciers. Furthermore, the ice-free land about the borders of an ice-cap is less likely to be in the form of cliffs above it. As a result, the surfaces of ice-caps are comparatively clean, except at their edges where the ice is thin.

Englacial material may become superglacial by surface ablation. In this case the drift does not rise, but melting brings the surface of the ice down to its level. This occurs chiefly at the end or edge of the ice, where the surface melting is greatest. Englacial débris, especially that near the bottom, may also become basal by the melting of the bottom of the ice.

Englacial material plucked or rasped from an elevation over which the ice has passed is liable to be disposed in a longitudinal belt in the ice in the lee of the elevation itself. By surface ablation this material may reach the surface at some point below its source, and be disposed as a medial moraine. Such a moraine has an origin very different from that of a medial moraine formed by the junction of two lateral moraines of superglacial origin.

Much less in the natural order of things is the transfer of material from a basal to an englacial and from an englacial to a superglacial position by upward movement of the débris itself. Such transfer is remarkable because the specific gravity of rock is from two and a half to three times as great as that of ice, so that its normal tendency is to sink.

In arctic glaciers, and probably in others, some material which has been basal becomes englacial by being sheared forward over ice in front of it. So far as observed this takes place chiefly where the ice in front of the plane of shearing lies at a lower level than that behind, as where the surface of an upland falls off into a valley, or where a boss of rock shelters the ice in its lee from the thrust of the overriding ice (Fig. 268).

At the borders of arctic glaciers the lower layers are not infrequently upturned, as shown in Figs. 269 to 272. Where the layers turn up at the end of a glacier (Figs. 269 and 270), basal and englacial débris is carried to the surface by actual upward movement, and a terminal moraine or a series of terminal moraines sometimes aggregated _where the upturned layers of ice outcrop at the surface_ (Fig. 271). That the material of these moraines was originally basal is abundantly demonstrated by the bruised and scratched condition of the bowlders and pebbles, and sometimes by the nature of the material itself. For example, in two cases in North Greenland where glaciers descend into the heads of shallow bays and move forward on their bottoms, moraines formed by the upturning of the layers were seen to contain _abundant molluscan shells derived from the bottom of the bay_. The upturning sometimes affects the side-edges of ice-tongues (Fig. 272) as well as their ends, and the material thus brought to the surface gives origin to lateral moraines altogether different in origin from the lateral moraines formed by the falling of débris upon the glaciers. Sometimes also there is an upturning of the ice along a longitudinal zone well back from the lateral margins (Fig. 273), and the material so borne to the surface in such a zone gives rise to a moraine resembling the medial moraine formed by the union of lateral moraines, but of wholly different origin.

The phenomenon of upturning here referred to has been observed only at or near the terminus of the ice, and is perhaps due in most part to the resistance of frozen morainic or other material beneath and in front of the edge. To this should probably be added the effect of the increased rigidity of the ice at its borders, due to the low external temperature during the larger part of the year, while the interior, with its higher temperature, remains more fluent. But even this probably leaves the explanation inadequate. In not a few instances the upturning is associated with a notable _thickening_ of the layers toward their edges (Fig. 274). This suggests that perhaps there is an exceptional growth of the granular crystals of the ice near the edge of the layers, owing to the penetration of the surface-waters which are much more abundant at the borders than elsewhere, and which in the arctic glaciers probably do not penetrate deeply before they reach a freezing temperature.

=Wear of drift in transit.=—Drift carried at the bottom of the ice is subject to notable wear. The materials in transportation abrade one another and are abraded by the bed over which they pass. Englacial drift is subject to less wear because it is commonly more scattered. Superglacial drift is worn little or none while it lies on the surface of the ice; but in so far as superglacial or englacial drift is derived from the basal load, it may show the same evidences of wear as the basal drift itself. Superglacial drift often reveals its history in this way.

_Deposition of the Drift._

1. =Beneath the body of the ice.=—During the advance of a glacier, deposition may take place both beneath the body of the ice and beneath its end and edges. Deposition beneath the body of the ice is liable to take place wherever the topography favors lodgment, or wherever the ice is overloaded. The topography favoring deposition is much the same as that favoring erosion, but the two processes are not favored at the same point. Erosion is greatest on the “stoss” side of an obstruction (the side against which the ice advances), and deposition on the lee side. The ice is likely to be overloaded (1) just beyond a place where conditions have favored the gathering of a heavy load, and (2) where the ice is rapidly thinning. On the whole, however, the deposition of material beneath the main body of a glacier is much more than balanced by erosion in the same position.

2. =At ends and edges of glaciers.=—At and near the end of a glacier the conditions of deposition are somewhat different. Here deposition beneath the ice goes on faster than elsewhere, chiefly because of the more rapid melting and the more rapid thinning and weakening of the ice. If the end of the glacier be stationary in position, drift is being continually brought to it and left there, for though the _end_ is stationary, the _ice_ continues to move. If the glacier moves forward 500 feet per year, and if its end is melted at the same rate, all the débris in the 500 feet of ice which has been melted has been deposited, and all except that which has been washed away has been deposited at and beneath the end of the glacier. If the end of the glacier is retreating, the retreat means that the waste at the end exceeds the forward movement. If the ice advances 300 feet per year, and is melted back 500 feet in the same time, all the débris carried by the 500 feet which has been melted has been deposited, and largely in the narrow zone (200 feet) from which the ice has receded. Even in this case, therefore, there is a notable tendency to marginal accumulation. If the end of the glacier is advancing 500 feet per year while it is being melted but 300 feet, all the drift in the 300 feet melted has been deposited, and chiefly at or beneath the immediate margin of the ice. To the marginal and sub-marginal accumulations made in this way, the material carried on the ice is added whenever the ice is melted from beneath it. This addition is sometimes considerable and sometimes meagre. If the edge of the ice is without much fluctuation in position, the material dumped over its end may take the form of a narrow ridge or bowlder-wall (_Geschiebe-wall_). If a glacier pushes material in front of it, this, too, becomes a part of the general terminal aggregation of drift.

TYPES OF MORAINES.

=The terminal moraine.=—The thick accumulation of drift made at the end of a glacier or at the edge of an ice sheet, especially where its end or edge is stationary, or nearly stationary, for a considerable time, is the _terminal moraine_. That part of the aggregation deposited beneath the ice is sometimes called the _lodge_ moraine (Figs. 275 and 276; see also Fig. 235); that carried on the ice and dropped at its edge, the _dump_ moraine; and that pushed before the ice, the _push_ moraine. Many moraines marginal to the ice appear to be push moraines, when they are really lodge moraines from which the ice has withdrawn (Fig. 277). The push moraine can rarely be distinguished, and the dump moraine by no means always, after the disappearance of the ice.

=The ground moraine.=—When a glacier disappears by melting, all its débris is deposited. All the drift deposited beneath the advancing ice and all deposited from the base of the ice during its dissolution constitutes the _ground moraine_. The thickness of the ground moraine is notably unequal. In general, it is thicker toward the terminus of the glacier and thinner toward its source, but considerable portions of a glacier’s bed are often left without débris when the ice melts. In general, the terminal moraine is not only thicker, but more irregularly disposed than the ground moraine.

=The lateral moraines.=—The surface lateral moraines of valley glaciers are let down on the surface beneath when the ice melts out from under them; but the lateral moraines in a valley from which the ice has melted are not merely the lateral moraines which were on the glacier at a given time. They are often far more massive than any which ever existed on the ice itself at any one time (Fig. 278). As a glacier retreats, its lateral moraine material is more or less bunched. Thus if the ice advances 200 feet while its end is being melted back 300 feet, the lateral moraines on the 300 feet melted are concentrated into 100 feet, as they are delivered on to the land by the melting of the ice from beneath. If the retreat of the end of a glacier be very slow, the bunching may be great. But even this cannot explain the massiveness of some lateral moraines. Furthermore, the materials of which many lateral moraines are composed are nearly as well worn as those of the ground moraine. The massive lateral moraines of which this is true are often made up chiefly of the drift accumulated beneath the lateral margins of the glaciers. This accumulation is the result of the lateral motion of the ice from center to side. Such sublateral accumulations are akin to terminal moraines. Some of the lateral moraines of ancient valley glaciers, such as those of the Uinta, Wasatch, and Bighorn mountains are several hundred feet high, and in one case about 1000 feet. In northern Italy lateral moraines are said to be 1500 to 2000 feet high.[132]

Most of the material which was englacial during the transportation becomes either subglacial or superglacial before deposition, for it ordinarily reaches the bottom or the top of the ice before being deposited. Where the ends or edges of a glacier are vertical or nearly so, as in the high arctic regions, deposition may take place from the englacial position directly.

=Distinctive nature of glacial deposits.=—The deposits made by glaciers are distinctive. In the first place the ice does not assort its material, and bowlders, cobbles, pebbles, sand, and clay are confusedly commingled (Fig. 279). In this respect, the deposits of ice differ notably from those of water. Furthermore, many stones of the drift show the peculiar type of wear which glaciers inflict. They are not rounded as the stones carried by rivers, though they are notably worn. Many of them have subangular forms with planed and beveled faces, the planes being striated and bruised (Fig. 254). The absence of stratification, the physical heterogeneity, and the striation of at least a part of the stones are among the most distinctive characteristics of glacial drift. A not less real though less obvious characteristic is the constitution of the fine material, for it is in general not the product of rock decay, but of rock grinding. The fine material handled by streams (except glacial streams) on the other hand, is usually the product of rock decay.

=Glaciated rock surfaces.=—Another distinctive mark which a glacier leaves behind it is the character of the surface of the rock on which the drift rests. This is generally smoothed by the severe abrasion to which it has been subjected, and the smoothed surfaces are marked by grooves and striæ, similar to those on the stones of the drift (Figs. 255 and 256). Other distinctive features of a glaciated area are the rounded bosses of rock (_roches moutonnées_, Fig. 280; see also surface about the lakes, Fig. 261), the rock basins, the lakes (Fig. 261), ponds, and marshes, and the peculiar topographies resulting from the unequal erosion, and the still more unequal deposition of the drift. Surface bowlders, often unlike the underlying formations of rock, and sometimes in peculiar and apparently unstable positions, are still another mark of a glaciated area.

GLACIO-FLUVIAL WORK.

The constant but unequal waste of glaciers has already been referred to. The streams to which this gives rise are usually laden with gravel, sand and silt derived from the ice. Since the mud is often light-colored, the streams are sometimes described as “milky.” Where the amount of material carried is great, much of it is dropped at a slight distance from the ice, the coarsest being dropped first. Glacial streams are, as a rule, aggrading streams, and therefore develop alluvial plains, called _valley trains_ (Fig. 281 and 282), or where they enter lakes (Fig. 283), bays, or other streams, deltas. In its transportation, the river-borne drift is assorted; after its deposition, it is stratified. True glacial deposits in the upper part of a mountain valley are, therefore, often continued below by glacio-fluvial deposits derived from the same source.

The most common form of such deposit is a _valley train_ (Fig. 281) of glacial wash stretching indefinitely down the valley. The silt, sand, and gravel of such trains can usually be distinguished from valley deposits of non-glacial origin by the character of the material, as much of it is the product of grinding, crushing, and fracture, rather than of ordinary surface decay. Its materials are, therefore, fresh and often include rock material which, if long exposed at the surface, would be decomposed or dissolved.

Where an ice sheet ends in a broad face, as did the ancient continental glaciers, numerous streams flow from it and spread their débris in front of the terminal moraine, forming a broad fringing sheet or “apron” (_outwash plain_) along it. Where streams of considerable size form tunnels under or in the ice, these may become more or less filled with wash, and when the ice melts the aggraded channels appear as long ridges of gravel and sand known as _eskers_ (_osars_ and _serpentine kames_ and _kames_ of authors. See chapter on glacial period). It has been thought that similar ridges are sometimes formed in valleys cut in the ice from top to bottom, and even that they arise from gravel and sand lodged in superglacial channels. The latter at least is probably rare, as the surface streams usually have high gradients, swift currents, and smooth bottoms, and hence give little opportunity for lodgment. In the case of ice-sheets, too, in connection with which eskers are chiefly developed, there is usually no surface material except at the immediate edge, where the ice is thin and its layers upturned.

At the mouths of ice-tunnels or ice-channels, especially where they end against terminal moraines, sands and gravels are liable to be bunched in quantity, giving rise, after the adjacent ice has melted, to peculiar hills and hollows of the knob-and-basin type. The hills and short ridges are known as _kames_ (see glacial period). Subglacial streams may leave washed and assorted material in their tracks under the ice, and this is sometimes buried under deposits made by the ice itself, so that glacio-fluvial and glacial deposits are interbedded.

ICEBERGS.

When glaciers advance into water, the depth of which approaches their thickness, their ends are broken off (Fig. 284), and the detached masses float away as icebergs (Fig. 285). Many of the bergs are overturned, or at least tilted, as they set sail. If this does not happen at the outset, it is likely to occur later as the result of the melting and wave-cutting which disturb their equilibrium. The great majority of bergs do not travel far before losing all trace of stony and earthy débris, but the finding of glacial material in dredgings far south of all glaciers shows that they occasionally carry stones far from land.

THE INTIMATE STRUCTURE AND THE MOVEMENT OF GLACIERS.

With the preceding account of glaciers in mind, we may return to a closer study of their origin, their intimate structure, and their mode of motion. The key to this study is the thesis that a glacier is a mass of crystalline rock—the purest and simplest type of crystalline rock known—since it is made up of a single mineral of simple composition and rare purity, which never appears in a solid state except in the crystalline form.

=The growth and constitution of a glacier.=—The origin and history of a glacier is little more than the origin and aggregate history of the crystals that compose it. The fundamental conception of a glacier is therefore best obtained by tracing the growth of its constituent crystals. A basal fact ever to be kept in mind is that water in the solid form is always controlled by crystalline forces. When it solidifies from the vapor of the atmosphere it takes the form of separate crystals (Figs. 286–291). Perfect forms are developed only when the flakes fall quietly through a saturated atmosphere which allows them to grow as they descend. Under other conditions, the crystals are imperfect in growth and are mutilated by impact. But however modified, they are always crystals. The molecules are arranged on the hexagonal plan, and, as the expansive power of freezing water shows, the arrangement is controlled by a strong force. Once the definite crystalline arrangement is established, the molecules can be displaced only by relatively great force.

Snow crystals often continue to grow so long as they are in the atmosphere; but if they pass through an under-saturated stratum of air or a stratum whose temperature is above 32° Fahr., they suffer from evaporation or melting. When they reach the ground, the processes of growth and decadence continue, and the crystals grow or diminish according to circumstances.

A glacier is a colossal aggregation of crystals grown from snowflakes to granules of much greater sizes. The microscopic study of new-fallen snow reveals the mode of change from flakes to granules. The slender points and angles of the former yield to melting and evaporation more than the more massive central portions, and this change probably illustrates a law of vital importance. It may often be seen that the water melted from the periphery of a flake gathers about its center, and if the temperature be right, it freezes there. This is a first step toward the pronounced granulation of snow which has lain for some time on the ground. If measured systematically from day to day, the larger granules taken from beneath the surface of this coarse-grained snow are found to be growing. In a series of experiments[133] to determine the law of growth it was found that when the temperature of the atmosphere was above the melting-point the growth was appreciably more rapid than when the air was colder, but there was, on the average, _an increase under all conditions of temperature_. A portion of this average increase of the larger granules appears to come from the diminution and destruction of the smaller ones, for the total number of granules steadily diminishes. A portion of the growth doubtless comes from the moisture of the atmosphere which penetrates the snow and another portion from the moisture derived from surface melting; but beneath the surface of a large body of snow the growth of the large granules is probably chiefly at the expense of the small ones. To follow the process it should be noted that the free surface of every granule is constantly throwing off particles of water-vapor (evaporation); that the rate at which the particles are thrown off is dependent, among other things, on the curvature of the surface, being greater the sharper the curve; that the surfaces of the granules are at the same time liable to receive and retain molecules thrown from other granules, and that, other things being equal, the retention of particles also depends on the curvature of the surface, the less curved surface retaining more than the sharply curved one. Under these laws, it is obvious that the larger granules of smaller curvature will lose less and gain more, on the average, than the smaller granules of greater curvature. It follows that the larger granules will grow at the expense of the smaller. It is also to be noted that, other things being equal, small granules melt more readily than large ones, and that where the temperature is nicely adjusted between melting and freezing, the smaller may lose while the larger gain.

Another factor that enters into the process is that of pressure and tension. The granules are compressed at the points of contact and put under tension at points not in contact, and the pressure and tension are, on the average, likely to be relatively greatest for the smallest granules. Tension increases the tendency to evaporation and adds its effects to curvature, and the capillary spaces adjoining the points of contact probably favor condensation. Ice expands in crystallizing and pressure reduces the melting-point, while tension raises it. The effect of this is slight (p. 276), and it probably plays little part in glacial action, but it is to be correlated with the much more important fact that _compression produces heat_ which may raise the temperature of the ice to the melting-point, while tension may reduce the temperature to or below freezing. There is therefore a tendency for the ice to melt at the points of contact and compression, and for the water so produced to refreeze at adjacent points where the surface is under tension. This process becomes effective beneath a considerable body of snow, and here the granules gradually lose the spheroidal form assumed in the early stages of granulation and become irregular polyhedrons interlocked into a more or less solid mass.

A third factor is also to be recognized, though its effectiveness is unknown. Under severe wind pressure, air penetrates porous bodies with appreciable facility. The “breathing” of soils and the curious phenomena of “blowing-wells” and “blowing-caves” teach us of the effective penetration and extrusion of the air under variations of barometric pressure. In the snow-fields, and in the more granular portions of glaciers near their heads, the porosity is doubtless sufficient to allow of the appreciable penetration of the atmosphere. During a part of the time, the probable effect is the condensation within the ice of moisture from the air, and during another part, evaporation from the ice. These alternating processes are attended by oscillations of temperature. While the balance between loss and gain of substance may be immaterial, the oscillating nature of the process and the fluctuations of temperature are probably favorable to granular change.

Whether these processes furnish an adequate explanation of the changes or not, the observed fact is that there are all gradations from snowflakes and pellets into granular névé, and thence into glacier granules (_Gletscherkörner_), varying in size up to that of filberts and walnuts, and even beyond. In coherence, these aggregations may vary from the early slightly coherent granular stage, where the grains are small and spheroidal, to the ice stage, where the cohesion has become strong through the interlocking growths of the large granules. Even when the mass has become seemingly solid ice, sufficient space is usually left between the granules to give the dispersive reflection to light which imparts to glacier ice its distinctive whitish color.

=The arrangement of the crystal axes.=—The most radical difference between glacier ice and ice formed directly from water is in the arrangement (orientation) of the crystals. In the ice formed on undisturbed water, the bases of the crystals are at the surface and their principal axes are vertical, as shown by Mügge.[134] As they grow, the crystal prisms extend downwards. This gives a columnar or prismatic structure to the ice, well seen when it is “honeycombed” by partial melting. In the glacier, on the other hand, the crystals, starting from snowflakes, have their axes turned in various directions according to the accidents of their fall; and as the snow develops into ice, the principal axes of the crystals continue to lie in all directions. Hence glacier ice, unlike pond ice, cannot usually be split along definite planes, except where cleavage planes are subsequently developed by extraneous agencies.

Figures to illustrate the method of deformation of ice crystals.]

While the crystals of a glacier usually have their principal axes in various directions, there appears to be a tendency for them to approach parallelism in certain positions, especially in the basal parts of a glacier near its terminus. Observations on this point are not so full and critical as could be desired, but it is probable that the parallel orientation is partly general, and due to the vertical pressure of the ice, and partly special and local, and connected with the shearing planes and foliation.

The bearing of this partial parallelism of the crystals on shearing and foliation is supposed to reside in the fact that a crystal of ice is made up of a series of plates arranged at right angles to the principal axis of the crystal. These plates may be likened to a pile of cards, the principal axis being represented by a line vertical to them. If a cube be cut from a large crystal of ice, it will behave much like a cube cut from the pile of cards. If the cube be so placed that its plates are horizontal (Fig. 291_a_), and if it be rested on supports at two edges and heavily weighted in the middle, it will sag, the plates sliding slightly over one another so as to give oblique ends, but in this case the cube offers considerable resistance to deformation. If the cube be so placed that the plates stand on edge, each reaching from support to support (Fig. 291_b_), it will offer very great resistance to deformation; but if the plates be vertical and transverse to the line joining the supports, as in Fig. 291_c_, the middle portion will sag under very moderate weighting by the sliding of the plates on one another, and in a comparatively short time the middle portion may be pushed entirely out, dividing the cube. These properties have been demonstrated by McConnel[135] and Mügge, and they appear to throw light on certain phases of the action of glaciers that are most pronounced in their basal parts, and are best illustrated in arctic glaciers.

_The Probable Fundamental Element in Glacial Motion._

=Melting and freezing.=—It has already been shown (p. 279) that the initial or fundamental cause of glacial motion must be operative at the heads of glaciers where the temperature is lowest and the material most loosely granular. In this condition, there is reason to believe that motion takes place between the grains, rather than by their distortion through the displacement of their laminæ. The fact that the granular structure is not destroyed, as it would be by the indefinite sliding of the crystal plates over each other, sustains this view. The inference is that the gliding planes play a notable rôle in glacial movement only in the basal parts of the lower ends of glaciers, where the greatest thrusts are developed, and where the granules have become largest and most completely interlocked. At the heads of glaciers, where motion is initiated, there may be great downward pressure, but not vigorous thrusts from behind, and probably only moderate thrusts developed within the body itself. There seems therefore no escape from the conclusion that the primal cause of glacial motion is one which may operate even under the relatively low temperatures, the relatively dry conditions, and the relatively granular textures which affect the heads of glaciers. These considerations lead to the view that movement takes place by the minute individual movements of the grains upon one another. While they are in the spheroidal form, as in the névé, this would not seem to be at all difficult. They may rotate and slide over each other as the weight of the snow increases; but as they become interlocked by growth, both rotation and sliding must apparently encounter more resistance. The amount of rotary motion required of an individual granule is, however, surprisingly small, and the meltings and refreezings incident to shifting pressures and tensions, and to the growth of the granules, seem adequate to meet the requirements. In order to account for a movement of three feet per day in a glacier six miles long, the mean motion of the average granule relative to its neighbor would be, roundly, ¹⁄₁₀₀₀₀ of its own diameter per day, or one diameter in 10,000 days; in other words, it would _change its relations to its neighbors_ to the extent of its diameter in about thirty years. A change of so great slowness under the conditions of granular alteration can scarcely be thought incredible, or even improbable, in spite of the interlocking which the granules may develop. The movement is supposed to be permitted chiefly by the temporary passage of minute portions of the granules into the fluid form at the points of greatest compression, the transfer of the moisture to adjoining points, and its resolidification. The points of greatest compression are obviously just those whose yielding most promotes motion, and a successive yielding of the points that come in succession to oppose motion most (and thus to receive the greatest stresses) permits continuous motion. It is merely necessary to assume that the gravity of the accumulated mass is sufficient to produce the minute temporary liquefaction at the points of greatest stress, the result being accomplished not so much by the lowering of the melting-point as by the development of heat by pressure.

This conception of glacial “flowage” involves only the _momentary liquefaction of minute portions of the mass_, while the ice as a whole remains rigid, as its crystalline nature requires. Instead of assigning a slow viscous fluidity like that of asphalt to the _whole_ mass, which seems inconsistent with its crystalline character, it assigns a free fluidity to a succession of particles that form only a minute fraction of the whole at any instant.

This conception is consistent with the retention of the granular condition of the ice, with the heterogeneous (in the main) orientation of the crystals, with the rigidity and brittleness of the ice, and with its strictly crystalline character, a character which a viscous liquid does not possess however much its high viscosity may make it resemble a rigid body.

=Accumulated motion in the terminal part of a glacier.=—However slight the relative motion of one granule on its neighbor, the granules in any part of a glacier partake in the accumulated motion of all parts nearer the source, and hence all are thrust forward. Herein appears to lie the distinctive nature of glacial movement. Each part of a stream of water feels the hydrostatic pressure of neighboring parts (theoretically equal in _all_ directions) and the momentum of motion, but not the rigid thrust of the mass behind. Lava streams are good types of viscous fluids flowing in masses comparable to those of glaciers and on similar slopes, and, in their last stages, at similar rates, but their special modes of flow and their effects on the sides and bottoms of their paths are radically different from those of glaciers. Forceful abrasion, and particularly the rigid holding of imbedded stones while they score and groove the rock beneath, is unknown in lava streams and is scarcely conceivable. There is, so far as we know, no experimental or natural evidence that any typical viscous body in flowing over a rugose bottom detaches and picks up fragments and holds them as graving tools in its base so fixedly as to cut deep, long, straight grooves in the hard bottom over which it flows. It would seem that competency to do this peculiar class of work, which is distinctive of glaciers, should be demonstrated before the viscous theory of glacial movement is accepted as even a good working hypothesis. Somewhat in contrast with viscous movement, it is conceived that a glacier is thrust forward rigidly by internal elongation, shears forcibly over its sides and bottoms, and leaves its distinctive marks upon them.

_Auxiliary Elements._

=Shearing.=—In the lower portion of a glacier where normally the thrusts are greatest, the granules fewest, and their interlocking most intimate, shearing takes place within the ice itself. This is illustrated by the accompanying Figs., 292–295. The shearing results in the foliation of the ice and in the forcing of débris between the sheared layers. Thus the ice becomes loaded in a special englacial or baso-englacial fashion, as previously mentioned and illustrated in Fig. 268.

Within the zone of shearing, it is probable that the gliding planes of the crystals come into effective function. It is thought that the combined effect of the vertical pressure, the forward thrust, and the basal drag of the ice, may be to increase the number of granules whose gliding planes are parallel to the glacier’s bottom. At any rate, Drygalski reports[136] that there is a tendency to such an arrangement in the basal portion of the Greenland glaciers at their borders. It is conceived that where strong thrusts are brought to bear upon such a mass of granules, those whose gliding planes are parallel to the direction of thrust are strained with sufficient intensity to cause the plates to slide over each other, while those which are not parallel to the direction of thrust are either rotated into parallelism—when they also yield—or are pressed aside out of the plane of shear. As previously noted, shearing is observed to occur chiefly where the ice below the plane of shearing is protected more or less from the force of the thrust. It perhaps also occurs where the basal ice becomes so overloaded with débris that it is incapable of ready movement.

It is also probable that sharp differential strain and shearing are developed at the level where the surface-water of the warm season, descending into the ice, reaches the zone of freezing. The expanding of the freezing water at the upper limit of the cold zone may cause the layer expanded by it to shear over that below. As the level of freezing is lowered with the advance of the warm season, the zone of shearing also sinks. This may be regarded as an auxiliary agency of shearing, of application to a special horizon.

=High temperature and water.=—In the zone of waste, a higher temperature and more water lend their aid to the fundamental agencies of movement, and there is need for these aids to promote a proportionate movement, for here the granules are more intimately interlocked and the ice more compact and inherently more solid and rigid. The average temperature is, however, near the melting-point (p. 276), and during the warm season the ice is bathed in water so that the necessary changes in the crystals are facilitated, and movement apparently takes place even more readily than in the more open granular portion of lower temperature and dryer state. The extraordinary movements of certain tongues of ice in some of the great fiords of Greenland are probably due to the convergence of very thick slow-moving ice from the interior into basins leading down to the fiords. Into the same basins a large amount of surface-water is concentrated at the same time, with the result that the thick ice, bathed with water and having a high gradient, develops unusual velocity during the warm season.

=Applications.=—By a studious consideration of the coöperation of the auxiliary agencies with the fundamental ones, the peculiarities of glacial movement may apparently be explained. In regions of intense cold, where a dry state and low temperature prevail, as in the heart of Greenland, the snow-ice mass may accumulate to extraordinary thicknesses, for the burden of movement seems to be thrown almost wholly upon compression, with the slight aid of molecular changes due to internal evaporation and allied inefficient processes. Since the temperature in the upper part of the ice is very adverse (see p. 277), the compression must be great before it becomes effective in melting the ice, and hence the great thickness of the mass antecedent to much motion. Similar conditions more or less affect the heads of alpine glaciers, though here the high gradients favor motion with lesser thicknesses of ice; but in the lower reaches of alpine glaciers, where the temperatures are near the melting-point, and the ice is bathed in water, movement may take place in ice which is thin and compact.

If the views here presented are correct, there is also, near the end or edge of a glacier, the coöperation of rigid thrust from behind with the tendency of the mass to move on its own account. The latter is controlled by gravity, and conforms in its results to laws of liquid flow. The former is a derived factor, and is a mechanical thrust. This thrust is different from the pressure of the upper part of a liquid stream on the lower part, because it is transmitted through a body whose rigidity is effective, while the latter is transmitted on the hydrostatic principle of equal pressure in all directions.

_Corroborative Phenomena._

The conception of the glacier and its movement here presented explains some of the anomalies that otherwise seem paradoxical. While a glacier in a sense flows over a surface, it often cuts long, deep furrows in firm rock. It is difficult to explain this if the ice be so yielding as to flow under its own weight on a surface which is almost flat. If the mass is really viscous, its hold on its imbedded débris should also be viscous, and a bowlder in the bottom should be rotated in the yielding mass when its lower point catches on the rock beneath, instead of being firmly held while a deep groove is cut. This is more to the point since viscous fluids flow by a partially rotary movement. If, on the other hand, the ice is always a rigid body which yields only as its interlocking granules change their form by loss and gain, a rigid hold on the imbedded rock at some times, and a yielding hold at others, is intelligible, for on this view the nature of its hold is dependent on the temperature and dryness of the ice. Stones in the base of a glacier may be held with very great rigidity when the ice is dry, scoring the bottom with much force, while they may be rotated with relative ease when the ice is wet. In short, the relation of the ice to the bowlders in its bottom varies radically according to its dryness and temperature. _A dry glacier is a rigid glacier. A dry glacier is necessarily cold, and a cold glacier is necessarily dry._

On the view here presented, a glacier should be more rigid in winter than in summer, and the whole thickness of the glacier should experience this rigidity chiefly at the ends and edges, where the relative thinness of the ice permits the low temperature to reach its bottom. The motion in these parts during the winter is, therefore, very small.

In this view may also be found an explanation of the movement of glaciers for considerable distances on upward slopes, even when the _surface_ as well as the base is inclined backwards. So far does this go that superglacial streams sometimes run for some distance _backwards_, i.e. toward the heads of the glaciers, while in other places surface-waters are collected into ponds and lakelets. Such a slope of the surface of ice is not difficult to understand if the movement be due to thrust from behind, or if it be occasioned by internal crystalline changes acting upon a rigid body; but it must be regarded as very remarkable if the movement be that of a fluid body, no matter how viscous, for the length of the acclivity is sometimes several times the thickness of the ice. Crevassing and other evidences of brittleness and rigidity find a ready elucidation under the view that the ice is a really solid body at all times, and that its apparent fluency is due to the momentary fluidity of small portions of the mass assumed in succession as compression demands.

In addition to the considerations already adduced, it may be urged that a glacier does not flow as a stiff liquid because its granules are not habitually drawn out into elongated forms, as are cavities in lavas and plastic lumps in viscous bodies. Flowage lines comparable to those in lavas are unknown in glaciers.