Glacier Motion

Abstract

IN making some experiments on the freezing of water some time ago it was noticed that after the same water had been melted and frozen a number of times it generally burst the tube in which it was frozen. On looking for an explanation of this phenomenon, it became at once evident that the experiment contained the germ of the explanation of glacier motion. Every time the water was frozen in the tube there was a mimic representation of glacier motion. The ice possessed, the first two or three times it was frozen, a certain amount of viscosity which enabled it to adapt itself to the shape of the tube, as was evident from the distortion of the upper surface of the ice in the tube. How came the ice to lose this plasticity or viscosity, this power of adapting itself to the shape of the tube, the loss of which caused it to burst the tube after it had been frozen and melted a number of times? Wherein did the ice which had only been frozen once differ from the other? The answer to this seemed to be, that the ice which had only been frozen once had more air in it than that which had been frozen and melted a number of times, as each succeeding freezing deprived the ice of a quantity of air or some other gases. The natural conclusion, therefore, seemed to be, that ice with air in it is a viscous substance, though pure ice is not. The first question then to be asked is, Is ice with air in it a viscous substance? In order to get an answer to this question, glass tubes 4inch in diameter and twelve inches long were filled with water in which was dissolved a great quantity of air. The tubes were then placed in a freezing mixture. After the water was frozen in the tubes the tubes were slightly heated and the rods of ice withdrawn from them and placed on two supports eight and a half inches apart, and a weight of one pound hung from the centre of these ice beams. The beams at once began bending and continued bending so long as the weights were left on them, thus proving the viscosity of the ice experimented on. The ice of these beams though similar was not the same as glacier ice; other ice beams were therefore made, in as close imitation of glacier ice as possible, which was done by placing a small quantity of water in the tubes, then some snow, and pressing it firmly to the bottom of the tubes, then adding more snow, and again firmly pressing it down, and so on till the tubes were filled, as much pressure being applied as possible to the snow to drive out the water. The tubes were then placed for some time in the freezing mixture. The ice beams were afterwards withdrawn from the tubes and placed on the supports, and a weight of one pound hung from the centre. The beams of snow ice so made were found to be more easily bent than those made from the water. The rate at which they bent varied, possibly owing to there being more or less water-ice mixed with the snow-ice: one of the beams bent one inch in five minutes. Temperature seemed to have some influence on the rate of bending of these beams, but this point was difficult to determine on account of the different beams bending at different rates at the same temperature; but so far as could be ascertained from the experiments, the beams bent slower the lower the temperature. The lowest temperature used in these experiments was rather more than three Fahrenheit degrees below freezing.