Glacilogy and the Lake Ice Cover

The glaciers of the dry valley regions differ in many ways from New Zealand glaciers. The glaciers extend out of their valleys over flat moronic covered ground as free standing blocks of ice up to a mile long. They have vertical sides up to 200 feet high, and do not appear to significantly disturb the moraines on which they rest. Hence it is relatively easy to drill into the side of the glacier near its base, in order to find the variations of temperature with depth. It was found that the glacier was colder near the bottom than several metros above. This means that there is a maximum temperature near the middle of the glacier, which may indicate that the upper part of the glacier slides over the [unclear: moreorless] stationary lower part.

On lake Fryxell, a series of ice platforms, formed each inter and incorporated in the ice cover of the lake, were measured with respect to each either and to the water level of the lake. The relative heights of these platforms indicate a yearly net ablation rate 30 to 40 cm., for the lake ice. Comparison with measurements from Ross Island shows that ablation is considerably higher on the west side of Mc Hurdo Sound than on the east; this is attributed to the prevalence of [unclear: adiabatically] heated winds in the dry valleys. The ablation rate figure for Lake Pryxell has been extrapolated to the nearby Commonwealth and Canada Glaciers allowing calculation of their ice budgets.