Investigations of the accretion of ice at the base of dry based glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (Suess, Canada, LaCroix, Taylor, Lower Wright, Clark and Upper Victoria glaciers)

The Suess, Canada, LaCroix and Taylor glacier in the Taylor Valley, the Lower Wright and the Clark glaciers in the Wright Valley and the Upper Victoria glacier in the Victoria Valley were all sampled. Five glaciers terminated in or near lakes, and the other two terminated high on the valley side but were investigated as examples of glaciers that have not interacted with lakes.

There were five main objectives of the study including: 1) to determine the base cation and chloride concentration of white glacier ice, basal ice and lake ice from glacier margins, 2) to determine the ion exchange capacity of sediment samples from the terminus of glaciers, 3) to determine the origin of basal ice in dry based alpine glaciers, 4) to determine whether lake ice/water is accreted to the base of dry based glaciers and 5) to determine whether lake ice occurs in thrust block moraines which form at the glacier terminus.