Geology, Vol. 1 [of 3]

by Thomas C. Chamberlin; Rollin D. Salisbury

Fig. 295.—Lateral margin of a North Greenland glacier, Inglefield Gulf region. The overhanging edges of the successive layers are not altogether the result of shear. They are due in part at least to differential melting along the lines where débris comes to the surface. The débris planes may be shear planes.

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.

All this is strictly consistent with our primary thesis, that a glacier is a crystalline rock of the purest and simplest type, and that it never has other than the crystalline state. This strictly crystalline character is incompatible with viscous liquidity.