Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 20:22

Mr. Lampert,

Reading through your most recent journal post got me thinking as I read about the study of the sediment bands that appear in the ice as the glacier takes up fine sediments. Below one of your photos you mention it isn't fully understood why the bands occur. Could the bands be the result of a freeze/thaw process? If the sediment is derived from glacial movement along a rock surface, this could occur after a thaw cycle has loosened the ice and allowed it to mobilize. Then say you have a freeze cycle occur, and the freshly ground sediment is captured int he new ice that also builds below the new sediment layer, lifting it up ready for the next thaw cycle and so forth. I guess one quick question on top of this would be; how much does the temperature at the glacial interface with the ground change? Thanks.

An up and coming and always curious engineer, Oregon

Michael Lampert

well curious engineer, i thought it was related to yearly or seasonal things, but I was told it was not... I just do not know the answer to the question... there are lots of water pockets in the ice... but the banding is odd.... I am not sure if there is a freeze/thaw cycle like we think of on the surface of the glacier....down here it all is ice... the ice folds over on itself like putty though...