Morphology of medial moraines on Austerdalsbreen, Norway, and Berendon Glacier, British Columbia, depends upon englacial debris supply. Major sub-types of this "ablation-dominant" model are related to the zone of debris entrainment relative to the firn line, and the manner of entrainment.

On Austerdalsbreen, debris derived from extraglacial bedrock slopes is entrained via crevasses at the confluence of two ice-cap outlet glaciers below the firn line. Revelation of crevasse-bound debris generates a distinct ice-cored morphology which is destroyed as crevasse bottoms are revealed down-glacier.

On Berendon Glacier ice streams coalesce above and below the firn line. Above the firn line, debris from extraglacial rock outcrops, subnival and subglacial zones, undergoes seasonal sedimentation with snowfall, and extends throughout the ice depth. Distinct moraine morphology in the terminal zone is related to continuing debris supply. Most debris is transported at depth near the glacier base.

An "ice-stream interaction" model where medial moraines formed below the firn line from the confluence of ice streams with large lateral moraine load are morphologically controlled by flow, explains morphology on the Berendon Glacier in the main confluence zone only. Down-glacier, this moraine becomes "ablation dominant". A minor "avalanche-type" model is also recognized.

Several large submerged ice masses are described from along western McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The most important discovery is that Cape Chocolate and the adjacent island that form Salmon Bay are large, grounded ice masses mounted with morainal sediment. Both features are probably remnants of a past expansion of the Ross Ice Shelf. As such, their strata and potential temporal markers may help to unravel the glacial geological chronology of McMurdo Sound. The island was connected to Cape Chocolate during the early British Antarctic expeditions and split away between 1908 and 1956. Large sections of the Ross Ice Shelf have broken out along western McMurdo Sound several times since 1908. Ice walls grounded in shallow water were only observed near large receding ice masses. The location of these walls also corresponds to the recent calving pattern of the Ross Ice Shelf.

Crystallization histories of some ice layers in permafrost are inferred from crystal size, shape, dimensional and lattice orientation, and inclusion patterns. In an icing mound, formed by injection of water beneath frozen active-layer soil, early growth was rapid, indicated by copious small crystals and bubbles, followed by slower growth giving rise to crystals and bubbles elongate parallel to the freezing direction, c-axes were normal to crystal long axes. In a small pingo, bulk water existed temporarily at the freezing interface and freezing was unidirectional. In a larger pingo, variations in freezing rate were inferred. Later flow of ice modifies growth fabrics.

Dielectric properties of ice microcrystals have been studied in the frequency range 3 x 105 to 10-2 Hz. Two separated dispersions are revealed : the Debye dispersion of ice and another dispersion at very low frequencies. Both dispersions present an ageing effect, with decreasing activation energy for the Debye dispersion and with increasing activation energy for the second one. It is shown in this paper that the sum of these activation energies retains a constant value of (1.05±0.02) eV.

The aim of the paper is to analyse landscapes of glacial erosion associated with the Laurentide ice sheet at its maximum and to relate them lo the three main variables affecting glacial erosion, namely former basal thermal regime of the ice sheet, the topography of the bed, and the geology of the bed. The key to the analysis is the comparison of the distribution of landscape types with the simulated pattern of the basal thermal regime of the former ice sheet.

Landscapes of areal scouring are found to be associated with zones of basal melting and occur beneath much of the former ice-sheet centre and in those places where the topography favoured converging ice flow. The landscape type may also have formed beneath cold-based ice when it was carrying debris inherited from an up-stream zone of regelation. Areas with little or no sign of glacial erosion occur primarily in the north in the Queen Elizabeth Islands but they also occur on uplands associated with diverging ice flow; they coincide with areas calculated to have been covered by cold-based ice devoid of debris. Landscapes of selective linear erosion are common on uplands near the eastern periphery of the ice sheet. In these situations, pre-existing valleys channelled ice flow and created a situation where there was warm-based ice over the valleys and cold-based protective ice over the intervening plateaux. Variations in the permeability of the bedrock base have modified the landscape pattern, mainly in those areas where there was a change from one basal thermal regime to another. In general, permeable rocks tend to have experienced less erosion than impermeable rocks.

Using lake-basin density as an indication of the intensity of glacial erosion, a zone of maximum erosion is identified and this forms a ring between the centre of the former ice sheet and its periphery. This ring coincides with a zone where melt water from the ice-sheet centre is calculated to have frozen on to the bottom of the ice sheet. This regelation incorporated basal debris into the ice, forming a basal layer 20-50 m thick and afforded an efficient means of debris evacuation.

A conceptual model is developed and hangs round the following postulates:

• (1) Landscapes of glacial erosion are related primarily to the basal thermal regime of the ice sheet.

• (2) Landscapes of glacial erosion are equilibrium forms related to maximum glacial conditions. This implies that at some stage in the Pleistocene the Laurentide ice sheet was in a stable maximum condition for a long period of time.

• (3) Mechanisms allowing evacuation of debris rather than those of abrasion or fracture may be the most important in influencing the amount of erosion achieved by an ice sheet.

• (4) Cold-based ice may accomplish erosion if it contains debris.

At first, the general approach for calculating the horizontal forces an ice cover exerts on structures is discussed. Ice-force determination consists of two parts: (1) the analysis of the in-plane forces, assuming that the ice cover remains intact, and (2) the use of a failure criterion; because an ice force cannot be larger than the force capable of breaking up the ice cover. For an estimate of the largest ice force, an elastic plate analysis and a failure criterion are often sufficient. A review of the literature revealed that in the majority of the analyses, it is assumed that the failure load is directly related to a "crushing strength" of the ice cover. Observations in the field and tests in the laboratory show, however, that in some instances the ice cover failed by buckling. Subsequently the ice-force analyses based on the buckling failure mechanism are reviewed and their shortcomings are pointed out. A new method of analysis, which is based on the buckling of a floating ice wedge, is then presented.

Hummocks and hollows were found developed in bedrock in the South Shetland Islands Antarctica. Excavation revealed an ice lens 60 cm thick beneath a hummock. A cycle for the formation of the hummocks and hollows by the growth and collapse of ice lenses is suggested.

An event recorded by a biaxial tilt-meter during a storm at the camp of the AIDJEX Pilot Study located on the pack ice in the Beaufort Sea in 1972 is interpreted as an acceleration caused by the collision of a faster drifting ice floe with the station floe. It is estimated that the acceleration lasted between 20 and 40 s and resulted in a velocity increase of between 84 and 120 m/h. The energy imparted per square kilometer to the station floe during collision is estimated to be between 5.7 and 8.1 MJ.

The station was equipped with an acoustic bottom reference (ABR) system with a sampling rate of one minute. However, the positional scatter is too large and the sample rate too low to be able reliably to identify the collision event from the ABR data alone.

Moraines deposited by the outermost ice advance across Judge Daly Promontory, northeastern Ellesmere Island, reflect thin, topographically controlled ice lobes extending to sea-level. The termini of two ice lobes were investigated and both produced ice shelves where they flowed into isostatically depressed embayments along western Kennedy Channel. Morphological evidence for these ice shelves occurs at the entrance to these valleys where steeply descending lateral moraines become abruptly horizontal for 2 km. In addition, both the horizontal moraines and associated pro-glacial terraces are fossiliferous down-valley from the apparent grounding line. Based on the differences in elevation between the horizontal moraines and the valley bottoms, the two ice shelves had estimated thicknesses of c. 110 and 150 m. A proglacial outwash terrace at 175 m a.s.l. is considered to represent the approximate relative sea-level during the formation and break-up of the ice shelves. This relative sea-level is consistent with the water depths required to float the calculated ice thicknesses in both valleys. Associated with these ice margins are finite 14C dates of 28 000-30 000 B.P. and amino-acid age estimates of >35 000 B.P. The importance and likelihood of additional past ice shelves in the Canadian High Arctic is discussed.

The construction and use of a rugged and easily installed tensiometer for use in snow hydrology is discussed. The tensiometer incorporates a short (380 mm) water manometer, adequate for the small range of capillary pressure in melting snow. The response of a row of tensiometers to the application of a dyed water pulse to the snow surface is compared to the resulting dye stain pattern. The lateral variation of flow in a snow-pack requires the use of many tensiometers to define the capillary pressure regime.

We propose a method for measuring in situ and continuously, the water content of a sample of snow in the snow cover. This method is based on the measurement of the attenuation of an electromagnetic wave propagating in a sample of snow situated between two antennae, an emitter and a receiver. The working frequency is 9.4 GHz.

In 1899 P. A. Tutkovskiy published a theory of loess formation which depended on the presence of large continental glaciers. Unfortunately there was no glacial requirement in the theories of Berg and Richthofen and these have survived better than that of Tutkovskiy with the result that the close relationship between glacial action and loess formation is sometimes overlooked.

Snow-cover settlement was measured in a dry, annual sub-alpine snow cover in the Colorado Rockies with settlement gages. Settlement viscosities were calculated from the change in gage heights over various periods during the winter and early spring, and the associated overburden over the gages as estimated from density measurements and precipitation records. When adjustments are made for local snow temperature, viscosities are in fair agreement with values found in the literature from similar snow covers, although considerable scatter for a given snow density is found in all sets compared. The viscosity for a given density does not appear to vary systematically with grain size.

Evidence from two areas in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica demonstrate that available moisture has been declining since at least 1 265 B.P. The cause is not known.

The report describes an experiment to evaluate the use of geophysical (Cambridge-type) wire strainmeters for the rapid acquisition of strain-rate data and to compare strains on a large ice mass over gauge distances of 5 m, 50 m, and 1 km.

Three continuously recording wire strainmeters were installed at the centre of two separate arrays of strain poles 10.6 km and 19.5 km from the ice divide on the Barnes Ice Cap. Data was collected between 24 April and 15 May 1976. The 1 km strain arrays had previously been measured in 1974 and 1975. The results show good agreement between the strainmeter data and the larger strain arrays at the 10.6 km site but differ at the 19.5 km site. When the daily means are calculated for the strainmeters at the 19.5 km site, the strain-rates show a possible periodic variation with an apparent period ofabout 11 d. Since there appears to be no direct correlation between the strainmeter signal and either temperature or pressure, the result is assumed to represent real varying strain within the ice.

Correlations between chemical profiles (Na, K and Mg) in three 2 m deep pits, separated by hundreds of kilometers on the Ross Ice Shelf, suggest that the passage of major storm systems is often recorded as peaks in cationic concentration in the snow-pack on the Ice Shelf. The magnitude of the peaks appears to be a function of both storm intensity and the extent of sea ice adjoining the Ross Ice Shelf. Samples were collected from a network of 21 shallow pits on the Ice Shelf. Although concentration of impurities in the snow varies as a function of distance from the sea on northern portions of the Ross Ice Shelf, a more complex relationship exists in the interior of the Shelf. A distinct chemical zone south of Roosevelt Island may reflect the presence of a "cyclone graveyard". Non-marine cationic ratios in the southern portion of the Ice Shelf suggest the significant influence of a fractionated marine aerosol and the presence of a second, continental aerosol source. Ionic ratios in rime deposited on the Ross Ice Shelf during periods of fog are interpreted as reflecting the production of fog droplets from the chemically-enriched surface microlayer of the ocean. Diffusionally grown snow crystals also have non-marine ratios. In contrast, snowfall associated with peaks in chemical concentration in particular, and the snow-pack on northern portions of the Ross Ice Shelf in general, yield near-marine ionic ratios. This indicates that the chemistry of snow which is near the coast and snow from major storms is dominated by large droplet riming and the associated presence of a high proportion of sea-salt particles.

An investigation into the feasibility of using a strain rosette to measure the principal strains and to locate the principal axes for a propagating strain wave is carried out for the particular application of a flexural-gravity wave in sea ice. It is found that the separation of the instruments in the rosette is extremely critical and, for a physically realizable rosette, errors are unavoidable if strain is to be monitored continuously. An alternative approach is proposed employing frequency-domain analysis and in particular a running-power spectral density. The method is demonstrated with data obtained from strainmeters on fast ice in Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland. Two distinct wave components are found to be present of period 6 s and 13s. and it is shown with 99.9% confidence that they are propagating in different directions.

Lichens were found growing on some of the supraglacial debris of six small, active, retreating valley glaciers in southern Norway. The circumstances permitting their growth are discussed, as is the possibility of their surviving pro-glacial deposition under current and past conditions. Their occurrence does not appear to present a problem to careful lichenometric surveys of Holocene glacial and fluvio-glacial deposits.

An outline is given of the Quaternary geology and geomorphology of Court Hill Col in Failand Ridge near Clevedon, Avon County, from observations made during the construction of the M5 Motorway.

A glacial col-gully about 100 m wide and approximately 25 m deep is described. The col-gully, eroded through the Carboniferous Limestone, opens and deepens northward. Associated with the Col and the col-gully is a complex sequence of Quaternary deposits. Uppermost in the sequence is a layer of red sandy silt (cover sand) approximately 0.5 m thick, of periglacial origin, probably of Devensian (Weichselian) age. Largely confined to the col-gully are unstratified tills, stratified ice-contact deposits and glacio-lacustrine deltaic deposits. The glaciogenic deposits are up to 25 m thick. Boulders of about 8 Mg in weight have been observed.

The geomorphology of the col-gully, and the stratification and composition of the glaciogenic deposits, demonstrate that an ice sheet at least 85 m thick had impinged against the south flank of Failand Ridge and was discharging immense quantities of water and sediment down an ice-contact slope through the Col into a small ice-marginal lake north of the col-gully. The ice sheet is regarded as being Wolstonian, or Anglian, in age.

The precise origins of the col-gully and the interpretation of the glacial sequence are not yet completely clear. However, it is believed that the balance of evidence indicates that both the col-gully itself and the glaciogenic deposits represent a complex sub-, en- and pro-glacial sequence associated with the downwasting and division of an ice mass into two parts by the "emergence" of Failand Ridge. The possible extent and geomorphological implications of ice-sheet penetration into the Bristol area are briefly discussed.