THE BOOK
Some of the ideas discussed in this blog are published in my new book called "The Stonehenge Bluestones" -- available by post and through good bookshops everywhere. Bad bookshops might not have it....
To order, click
HERE

Saturday 18 May 2019

Candle ice -- Fountain Glacier, Bylot Island



Candle ice crystals exposed in the "aufeis" area beyond the snout o Fountain Glacier on Bylot Island, far up in the Arctic off the NW coast of Greenland.  This is a real permafrost area where summer melting is very limited -- and ice crystals of this type seem to be restricted to this sort of environment.  The ice crystals form vertically, and may be just 2 cm across and up to a metre in length.

They seem to form where meltwater issuing from the glacier is unable to flow very far from the snout because this is a zone of continuous permafrost where temperatures seldom rise above freezing even in the middle of summer when the sun is shining.

From the superb Glaciers Online web site:

No comments: