Journal of Glaciology Investigation of a cold-based ice apron on a high-mountain permafrost rock wall using ice texture analysis and micro-14C dating: a case study of the Triangle du Tacul ice apron Article (Mont Blanc massif, France) Cite this article: Guillet G, Preunkert S, Ravanel L, Montagnat M, Friedrich R (2021). Investigation of a cold-based ice apron on a Grégoire Guillet1,2 , Susanne Preunkert3, Ludovic Ravanel1, high-mountain permafrost rock wall using ice texture analysis and micro-14C dating: a case Maurine Montagnat3,4 and Ronny Friedrich5 study of the Triangle du Tacul ice apron (Mont Blanc massif, France). Journal of Glaciology 1EDYTEM, Univ. Savoie Mont-Blanc, Univ. Grenoble Alpes/CNRS, Chambéry, France; 2School of Geography and 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.65 Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK; 3Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, IGE, 4 Received: 21 April 2020 F-38000 Grenoble, France; Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS, CNRM, Centre dÉtudes Revised: 17 May 2021 de la Neige, Grenoble, France and 5Curt–Engelhorn–Center Archaeometry, Mannheim, Germany Accepted: 18 May 2021 Keywords: Abstract Ice chronology/dating; ice core; ice crystal The current paper studies the dynamics and age of the Triangle du Tacul (TDT) ice apron, a mas- studies; mountain glaciers sive ice volume lying on a steep high-mountain rock wall in the French side of the Mont-Blanc Author for correspondence: massif at an altitude close to 3640 m a.s.l. Three 60 cm long ice cores were drilled to bedrock (i.e. Grégoire Guillet, the rock wall) in 2018 and 2019 at the TDT ice apron. Texture (microstructure and lattice-pre- E-mail: [email protected] ferred orientation, LPO) analyses were performed on one core. The two remaining cores were used for radiocarbon dating of the particulate organic carbon fraction (three samples in total). Microstructure and LPO do not substantially vary with along the axis of the ice core. Throughout the core, irregularly shaped grains, associated with strain-induced grain boundary migration and strong single maximum LPO, were observed. Measurements indicate that at the TDT ice deforms under a low strain-rate simple shear regime, with a shear plane parallel to the surface slope of the ice apron. Dynamic recrystallization stands out as the major mechanism for grain growth. Micro-radiocarbon dating indicates that the TDT ice becomes older with depth perpendicular to the ice surface. We observed ice ages older than 600 year BP and at the base of the lowest 30 cm older than 3000 years. 1. Introduction Ice aprons, also known as ice faces (Gruber and Haeberli, 2007; Hasler and others, 2011), are scarce accumulations of massive ice found in glacierized basins, above the equilibrium line (Armstrong and Roberts, 1956; Bhutiyani, 2011; Cogley and others, 2011; Guillet and Ravanel, 2020). Such a definition typically encompasses ice masses from different settings like isolated massive ice patches on rock walls (e.g. north face of Mount Alberta, Canadian Rocky Mountains) or any steep ice body lying over a glacial bergschrund, defined by Cogley and others (2011)as‘a crevasse at the head of a glacier that separates flowing ice from stagnant ice, or from a rock headwall’ (e.g. the Triangle du Tacul ice apron, Mont-Blanc massif, cf. Section 2.1, see Guillet and Ravanel (2020) for more details). Unlike other cryospheric objects, most notably large valley and cirque glaciers, ice aprons received little attention from the scientific community until now. Due to their small spatial extent (typically ranging between 0.01 and 0.1 km2) compared to other glaciers, ice aprons are not expected to have a significant impact on water resource availability. However, in popu- lated mountainous regions relying heavily on the high mountain environment for recreation and tourism like the Chamonix valley (Barker, 1982; Hall and Higham, 2005), the shrinkage of ice aprons raises concerns. Glacial recession and thermal destabilization of the permafrost have been identified as important factors for the recent increase in high mountain rock wall instabilities (Huggel and others, 2012; Ravanel and others, 2013; Deline and others, 2021). Ice aprons, covering steep rock walls, protect the underlying permafrost from thawing. Reduction in their surface area or complete disappearance would thus accelerate the ongoing destabilization of rock walls (Gruber and Haeberli, 2007; Kenner and others, 2011; Guillet and © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Ravanel, 2020). In addition, in the Mont-Blanc massif (MBM; France), ice aprons are often Cambridge University Press. This is an Open mandatory passing points for most classical mountaineering routes, existing since the begin- Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence ning of alpinism in Europe in the 18th century (Mourey and others, 2019). The disintegration (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), of ice aprons would therefore also lead to an important loss in European alpine culture which permits unrestricted re-use, heritage. distribution, and reproduction in any medium, In a companion paper, focused on the surface area variations of ice aprons in the MBM, provided the original work is properly cited. Guillet and Ravanel (2020) showed that ice aprons have been losing mass since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA), with accelerated shrinkage since the 1990s. Building on previous stud- ies focusing on ‘miniature ice caps’ and other small-sized perennial ice bodies (Haeberli and cambridge.org/jog others, 2004; Bohleber, 2019), Guillet and Ravanel (2020) hypothesized the ice composing ice Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. 28 Jun 2021 at 14:00:24, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use. 2 Grégoire Guillet and others ab Fig. 1. (a) Localization map of the Chamonix valley and the study site. (b) The TDT (peak at 3970 m a.s.l.), its north face and the ice core drilling site at 3650 m a.s.l. aprons to be quite old, with no clear insight on the potential age range. To get a better understanding of these particular ice bodies, knowledge about flow dynamics and ice ages in deeper layers, and in particular close to bedrock, is needed. To fill this knowledge gap, texture investigation and radiometric dating, suitable for potential ice ages older than a few hundred years, are considered. Since the pioneering studies of Perutz and others (1939), Kamb (1959) and Gow and Williamson (1976), texture investigations have proven to be a valuable tool in the study of the mechanics driving ice creep and glacier flow in glaciers and ice sheets (see e.g. Hudleston, 1977; Alley, 1988; Duval and others, 2000; Montagnat and others, 2012, 2014). In the following work, texture refers to both microstructure, i.e. size and shape of the ice crystals, and to lattice-preferred orientation (LPO), i.e. the distribution of orientations of the optical axis (c-axis, < 0001 >) in the analyzed sample. The recent refinement of radiocarbon measurement tech- niques for microscopic organic material from glacier ice (Uglietti and others, 2016; Hoffmann and others, 2017), and its successful deployment for near-bedrock ice at high-altitude cold Alpine gla- ciers (Jenk and others, 2009; Hoffmann and others, 2018; Preunkert and others, 2019a) as well as lower altitude cold-based Fig. 2. Schematic representation and geometry of the TDT ice apron. glaciers (Bohleber and others, 2018; Bohleber, 2019) make it a well-suited tool to estimate the age of ice aprons. In this study we focus on a systematic investigation of a single The mountain face has two distinct ice aprons; only the lower ice apron in the MBM. To do so, we sampled the lower ice one was sampled. Lying between 3570 and 3690 m a.s.l., it extends apron of the Triangle du Tacul north face (further denoted as over 4000 m2 and has a mean slope of 59 ± 2° from horizontal. TDT, 3970 m a.s.l.). This specific sampling site was selected since The retreat of the TDT ice apron since the 1940s has been quan- the climb to this ice apron (i.e. the only possibility to access such tified by Guillet and Ravanel (2020). The ice apron has lost close steep ice spots) is neither very long nor particularly exposed to to 20% of its 1940s surface area, with a noticeable increase in the − objective hazards. Also, previous on-site drilling showed that the mean melt rate since the 1990s (− 10 ± 24 m2 a 1 for the 1940–93 − ice apron was only ∼1 m thick at the drill site, allowing the extrac- period, − 46 ± 6 m2 a 1 since). Guillet and Ravanel (2020) did not tion of a complete surface-to-bedrock cross section of the ice apron note the presence of macroscopic flow features (crevasses or frac- using a portable drill device. In April 2018 and 2019 three ice cores tures) at the surface of the TDT. were drilled down to the bedrock and used to investigate the ice Several drilling campaigns were carried out at the sampling site texture. Without prior knowledge on the possible age of the ice (close to 3640 m a.s.l.). In March 2017 the ice apron was steam- apron, radiometric dating was used as a first approach. drilled to bedrock and the 0.6 m-deep borehole, traversing close to 20 cm of seasonal accumulation (fresh snow) and 80 cm of mas- sive ice, was set up for thermal monitoring. The borehole is located close to 3640 m a.s.l. (see Fig. 1). The mean temperature at the ice/ 2. Sampling site and methods rock interface has been measured continuously from March 2017 to April 2019 with an hourly sampling rate.