Holdsworth, G. 1969b. Primary transverse crevasses. Jour- nal of Glaciology, 8 (52) : 107-129. Holdsworth, G., and C. Bull. 1969. The flow law of cold ice; investigations on the Meserve Glacier, Antarctica. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Antarctic Glaciological Exploration (I.S.A.G.E.), Hanover, N. H., September 1968. Paterson, W. S. B. 1962. Observations on Athabaska Glacier and Their Relation to the Theory of Glacier Flow. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of British Columbia. Weertman, J. 1968. Diffusion law for the dispersion of hard particles in an ice matrix that undergoes simple shear deformation. Journal of Glaciology, 7 (50) : 161-165.

Chemical-Physical Weathering, Surficial Geology, and Glacial History of the Wright Valley, Victoria Land

ROBERT E. BEHLING and PARKER E. CALKIN

Institute of Polar Studies Photo by U.S. Navy for U.S. Geological Survey The Ohio State University Fig. 2. Meserve Glacier tongue, showing surface buckles or undulations. The major objectives of the past field season in- length can be predicted from a knowledge of the den- cluded accumulation of data for a surficial geologic sity of ice, the surface compression, and its decay with map and a preliminary determination of the relative depth. The calculated value (Holdsworth, 1969a) of ages of axial and alpine glacier advances throughout about 55 to 60 m is close to the measured values. the Wright Valley. Criteria such as relative position of It is hypothesized that the theory may also be ap- moraines, drift lithology, surficial boulder weathering, plied to the case of longitudinal tension, and, thus, shallow seismic profiles, and some isotopic data were be used to explain the spacings of transverse crevasses utilized to differentiate at least four major glacial (Holdsworth, 1965; 1969b). The theoretical results advances each from the Wright Upper Glacier and the measured values are given by I-Ioldsworth (inland ice plateau) and Wright Lower Glacier (Ross (1969a). Sea ice advances), and three major advances of the References alpine glaciers of Wright Valley. The three alpine Biot, M. A. 1960. Instability of a continuously inhomogene- advances recognized were apparently out of phase ous viscoelastic halfspacc under initial stress. Journal of with the westward invasions from the Ross Sea. Hv- the Franklin Institute, 270 (3) : 190-201. Carnein, C. R. 1968. Mass balance of the Meserve Glacier, ever, time relations of alpine and Ross ice advances Wright Valley, Antarctica. M. S. Thesis, Ohio State Uni- with the eastward movements of the Wright Up- versity. per Glacier and inland ice are less well defined. Geiringer, H. 1937. Fondements mathématiques de la théorie des corps plastiques isotropes. Académie des Sci- Distributions of drift suggest that there has been no ences, Paris. Mémoires, 86: 85-86. through-valley movement of the inland ice since the Glen, J . W. 1956. Measurement of the deformation of ice formation of basaltic volcanic cones on the valley in a tunnel at the foot of an icefall. Journal of Glaciology, 2 (20) : 735-745. floor some 4 million years ago. Holdsworth, G. 1965. An Examination and Analysis of the Observations made during the field season in the Formation of Transverse Crevasses, Kaskawulsh Glacier, adjacent Victoria Valley system to the north, and in Yukon Territory, Canada. Ohio State University. Institute of Polar Studies. Report No. 16. 90 p. the Taylor Valley and Mount Discovery areas will Holdsworth, G. 1966. Glaciological investigation of a cold facilitate correlations of the Wright Valley sequence glacier. Antarctic Journal of the U.S., 1(4): 138. with that of the whole McMurdo Sound region. Holdsworth, G. 1967. Investigation of Meserve Glacier. Antarctic Journal of the U.S., 11(4) : 123-124. Holdsworth, G. 1969a. A Contribution to the Theory of the Deformation of a Polar Glacier. Ph.D. Dissertation, Ohio State University. Now at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

128 ANTARCTIC JOURNAL Detailed studies of soil-profile development and sampling for laboratory evaluation of weathering was initiated throughout the valley by Behling during the latter part of the season. This work makes up the second phase of the project and is intended to help clarify the age relationships of axial to alpine glacia- tion and perhaps suggest the climatic and physical environment under which mineral alteration processes have acted and are now acting. Surveys of markers on a rock glacier in Wright Valley, on the Packard Glacier, and on the sand dunes below the Packard Glacier in Victoria Valley were undertaken to complement geomorphic studies initiated in 1961. 5-

Aft Ile Patterned Ground Studies in Victoria Land

ROBERT F. BLACK and ARTHUR A. TWOMEY Photo: Robert F. Black

Department of Geology and Geophysics Fig. 1. Mirabilite crystallizing out of a small pond in the terminal University of Wisconsin, Madison moraine area in front of the Hobbs Glacier.

During the 1968-1969 field season, the writers vis- ferent times. Another Y-intersection was controlled ited all field stations on Ross Island and in the dry for continuation of the test during 1969. valleys where patterned ground is controlled by bench Samples of pond water in which mirahilite was pre- marks. Widths of all controlled wedges were rneas- cipitating (Fig. 1) were collected from the Hobbs ured. This season, as in previous years, measurements Glacier area. Analyses for carbonate were made in were not always made at the optimum time, i.e., the field by titration, and the remainder of the dis- when ground temperatures reach their maximum and solved constituents will be determined in the labora- inaxiiiiuin (losing of contraction cracks takes place. tory. Sulphur and oxygen-isotope studies of the mate- Measurements at other times record more growth be- rials are under way in New Zealand at the Institute of tween bench marks than actually has occurred. Any Nuclear Sciences. Studies of evaporite mineralogy and one austral suiiimer varies sufficiently from the norm brine compositions are being carried out at the Uni- to make the precise time when measurements should versity of Wisconsin. be made almost unpredictable. As a consequence, cor- Another saline discharge was examined and sam- rection factors must be applied to each years measure- pled at the terminus of Taylor Glacier at Lake nients iii order to determine annual variability of Bonney. This dircharge came from the same location growth rates. The correction factor is obtained from and was of the same size as that studied earlier by ground temperatures recorded continuously through- Black and Bowser (1968) and Black, Jackson, and out the year at McMurdo and in Taylor Valley. These Berg (1965). (See also Black, 1969.) The samples two recording stations were serviced immediately on from the discharge are being analyzed at the Uni- arrival in order to insure continuous thermal data versity of Wisconsin. during the field season. Correction factors for locations in \V right and Beacon Valleys and elsewhere are made References by extrapolations. The thermal data and contraction Black, Robert F. 1969. Saline discharges from Taylor Gla- data are now being reduced. cier, Victoria Land, Antarctica. Antarctic Journal of the During the 1967-1968 field season, Arthur Twomey U.S., IV(3): 89-90. Black, Robert F. and Carl J. Bowser. 1968. Salts and asso- installed a recording setup to determine the timing of ciated phenomena of the termini of the Hobbs and Taylor ice-wedge cracking at McMurdo Station. Ice wedges Glaciers, Victoria Land, Antarctica. International Union forming Y-intersections were controlled to see of Geodesy and Geophysics. Commission of Snow and Ice, Pub. no. 79, p. 226-238. whether the three components of the Y cracked s!- Black, Robert F., M. L. Jackson, and Thomas E. Berg. 1965. inultaneously. Preliminary analysis of the data sug- Saline discharge from Taylor Glacier, Victoria Land, Ant- gests that individual limbs of two Ys cracked at dif- arctica. Journal of Geology, 73: 175-181.

July—ugust 1969 129