ABSTRACT: Structures and ice deformation in the White Glacier, Axel Heiberg Island, Northwest Territories, Canada.

CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Abstract

The major structures in the long, narrow tongue of a sub-polar valley glacier are described: namely, longitudinal foliation, crevasses, clear-ice layers related to crevasses, debris-rich layers (frequently referred to as thrust or shear planes in the past), and folds. The foliation is vertical, is as well-developed in the centre of the glacier as at the margins, and does not, apparently, form perpendicular to the principal compressive strain-rate axis, nor exactly parallel to a line of maximum shearing strain-rate, although it sometimes approximately coincides with the latter. The intensity of foliation development is not related to the magnitude of the strain-rates, but the structure consistently lies parallel to flow lines through the glacier. There is no critical extending strain-rate, as such, associated with the development of new crevasses. ... It is suggested that these structures are formed by a combination of basal freezing and thrusting. Isoclinal and tight similar folds on all scales are present. Some may be formed by the passive deformation of clear-ice layers as a result of differential flow; others may arise from the lateral compression of the original stratification in areas where ice flow becomes constricted by the narrowing of the valley. An axial plane foliation sometimes is associated with these folds.

Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology