TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT ON THE BREITHORN · TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT 4,000 m. ON THE BREITHORN...

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TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT 4,000 m. ON THE BREITHORN By J OEL E. FI SHER (New York ) ABS TRACT . A desc rip tion is given of two t unn els, each 60- 70 m. long, one dir ectly above the o th er, at 4,000 a nd 4,020 m. a.s .1. ex cavat ed through cold firn a nd ice of th e Breithorn in th e A lps. Th e tem pe ra tur e rose fro m - 5' 50 C. at th e port al to - 50 C. at the rock int e rface 70 m. from the po rt a l in th e upper t unnel , a nd fr om - 5' 50 C. to 0 0 C. at a wa ter reservoir 60 m. from the po rt al in th e lower t unn e l. In bo th cases cr ac ks or minut e sea led crevasses, c ut by the tunn el, op era ted to cool the ice loca ll y below th e te mp era tur e to be exp ected from a smooth cur ve . Possible origins of th e wa ter reservo ir are discussed. Small amo unt s of a ir a t a mode rat e pressure, enclosed in small , sealed cra cks a nd ho ll ows, were pun c tur ed between 60 a nd 70 m. fr om the po rtal in th e upp er tunn e l. T he pun gent odor of the air thus r eleased was identified as ozo ne ( a) by its char ac teristic odor, (b) by its r eac ti on on rubb er, and (c) by potass iu m iodide star ch p ape r tests. Th e so ur cc of such ozo ne is suspected to be minut e elec tric spa rks res ultin g from sta ti c electric charges built up in cold ice wh en it is subj ec ted und er press ur e to cr ac king or defo rm a ti o n ; ph oto- g raph s taken w ith expos ur es of 8 hr . in th e upper tunn el at night a ppare ntl y sh ow such sparks. A desc ripti on is given of the app ea ran ce of cold ice, fr oze n to the bedr oc k, being forcibly to rtur ed into str eamers ancl ba ncls by the move me nt of the cntir e ice bo cl y at 0·6 m./yr. R ESUME. On d ee rit 2 tunn els, aya nt cha cun de 60 it 70 m de long, pla ces I' un au-dessus de I 'a utr e it 4 000 et 402 0 m d 'a ltitud e qui o nt ete creuses dan s le neve froid et la glace clu Br e ith orn cl ans les A lp es. D ans le tunnel superie ur , la te mp era tur e s'est eI evee cl e - 5,5 0 C it I'e ntr ee jusqu ' it - 0,5 0 C au conta ct de la roehe s ituee it 70 m: d an s le tunn el inf erielll', la te mp er at ur e passe cl e - 5,5 0 C it 0 0 C it 60 m de I'e ntr ee, dans un reservo ir eI 'ea u. D a ns les el eux cas, des fi ss ur es ou de pe tit es crevasses refe rm ees, co up ees par le tunn el, o nt refroieli la glace local eme nt , en el essous de la te mpera tur e qu e I'o n a lll'ait pu att enelre it partir cl ' un e cOlll'be reguliere. On disc ut e l'origine clu reservoir eI 'ea u. De pe tit es p oe hes d' air occlus dans de petites fe nt es et creux referm es, on t ete percees entr e 60 et 70 m it panir el e I'e ntr ee dans le tunnel superi eur. L' ode ur piquant e de I 'a ir a insi libere a ete atlribu ee it I 'ozo ne: (a ) it ca us e cl e son oel e ur ca r ac teris tiqu e, (b) it cause de sa r eac ti on sur le caout chouc, et (c) par suit e de tests effectues avec un papier a micl o nn e it I'iodur e cl e po tass ium. O n suppose qu e I 'ex istcnce cl e I'ozo ne est du e it d e p eti tes e tin ce ll es prove nant de charges elec triqu es sta tiqu es creees da ns la glace fr oide sou m ise sous- pression aux cra queme nt s ou defo rmation s; el es ph ot og ra phi cs prises avec des te mps d 'ex position de 8 he ur es, la nuit el ans le tunn el supe ri e ur , montr e nt apparemm e nt de te ll es etincelles. On dec rit I 'as p ec t de la glace fr oide, gelee sur le lit r oc heux, qui es t defo rmee avec force en co ur a nt s et baneles par suit e d'un mouveme nt de 0,6 m par an de la masse entiere el e g lace. Z US AMM EN FASS UNG . Zwei Tunn e ls , jeel er 60- 70 m lan g, einer unmitt elbar lib er cl em a nd eren in 4000 unci in 4020 m liber dem Meer, wurclen dur eh kalten Firn und ka ltes Ei s a m Bre ith orn in den Sch we izer Alpen gegr aben. Eine e nt spreche ncl e Besc hr eibun g wird gege ben. Im oberen Tunnel stieg cli e T e mp era tur von - 5,5 0 C am Po rt a l bis - 0,5 0 an der Felsgrenze 70 m vo m Portal e ntf e rnt. Im unt eren Gl etscher sti eg die Te mp era tur von - 5,5 0 a uf 0° bis zu einem VVasse rr eser vo ir, class 60 111 vom Po rt al e ntf e rnt ist. In beicl en Fa ll en unt e rklihlt en Ri sse ode I' kleinc versc hl ossene Spalt en, di e clurch cl en Tunn el a uf gesc hni tte n wurclen, ortlich das kalte Eis unt er cli e T e mp e ratur , cli e von einer ausg lcichend en Kur ve erwa rt et w urd e. Die l1logliche E nt ste hun g d es Wasse rr eservo irs wircl di skuti e rt. Kleine Be tr age vo n Luft, die unt er massigem Dru ck ste ht. unci in kleinen verschlossenen Ri ssen unci Lochern cingeschlossen ist, wurd en in Entf ernun gen z wi schen 60 unci 70 111 vom Po rt al im oberen Tunnel an gesc hnitt cn. Der st ec hende Ge ru ch cl er Luft, cli e da dur ch frei wurde, ko nnt e als Ozo n idel1lifizie rt werclen (a ) dur ch seinen c harakt eristi schen Ge ru ch, (b) clurch sein e Reaktion a uf Ka ut sc huk und (c) clurch Kalium Jodid St ii rkepapie rt este. Es wir cl ve rmut et, cl ass cli eses Ozon dur ch kl eine Funk en e nt ste ht , di e von statischen Aufladun gen he rrlihr en; cli cse bau en sich im kalten Eis a uf, wenn es unt er Dru ck Z UI1l Reissen ge brac ht ocl er de fonni e rt wird. Ph otographisehe Aufnahm cn mit Ex positi onszeiten von 8 Stunelen zcigten im oberen Tunnel bci Nac ht deutlich offe nbar solch e Funk en. Es wircl eine Besc hr eibun g cl er Erscheinun g von ka lt en Ei s gegeben, d as am Felsuntergruncl an gefroren ist unci dur ch di e Beweg ung cl cs ga n ze n Eiskorpers mit 0,6 m lJa hr unter starkstem Zwa ng so b ea nspru c ht wird , d ass S t ro mlini en und Ba nd er e nt stehcn. SOME 52 yea rs a go , at Yale, the la te Prof essor Joseph Ba rr e ll brought to my a ttention a paper by Willard D. Johnson (1 904), Johnson de sc rib ed how he had des ce nd ed int o an op en berg- sc hrund on Mt. Lyell in the Sierras, and hav ing noted in it co pious melt wate r, cOUl'sin g down its ro ck wa ll , yet that qu a ntiti es of icicles fes tooned oth er pa rt s of th e naked rock, he co nclud ed that the ra pid alternati ons of me ltin g and fr eezing to be fo und in such bergsc hrund s es ta b- lished bergsc hrunds in general as the spec ifi c c uttin g tool by whi ch glac ier cirqu es were cr ea ted. 5'3

Transcript of TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT ON THE BREITHORN · TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT 4,000 m. ON THE BREITHORN...

Page 1: TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT ON THE BREITHORN · TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT 4,000 m. ON THE BREITHORN By J OEL E. FISHER (New York) ABSTRACT. A description is given of two tunnels,

TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT 4,000 m. ON THE BREITHORN

By J OEL E. FISHER

(New York)

ABSTRACT. A d escrip tion is given o f two tunnels, each 60- 70 m. long, one direc tl y a bove the o the r, a t 4,000 a nd 4,020 m . a.s .1. excavated thro ug h cold firn and ice of the Breithorn in th e A lps. The tem pera ture rose from - 5' 50 C. at the porta l to - o· 50 C. a t the rock inte rface 70 m. from the porta l in the upper tunnel , a nd from - 5' 50 C. to 00 C. at a wa te r reservoir 60 m . from the porta l in the lower tunnel. In bo th cases cracks or minute sealed crevasses, cut by the tunnel, opera ted to cool the ice locally below the tempera ture to be expec ted from a smooth curve. Possible orig ins of the wa ter reservoir a re d iscussed.

Small a mounts of a ir a t a moderate pressure, enclosed in small , sea led cracks a nd hollows, were punctured be tween 60 a nd 70 m. from the portal in the upper tunn el. T he pungent od o r of the air thus released was identifi ed as ozone (a) by its cha rac te risti c odor, (b) by its reac tion on rubber , and (c) by po tassium iodide starch paper tes ts. The sourcc of such ozone is suspec ted to be minute elec tri c sparks resulting from sta ti c electric charges built up in cold ice when it is subjected under pressure to cracking or deforma tio n ; photo­g raphs taken with exposures of 8 hr . in the upper tunnel a t night appa rently show such sparks.

A description is g iven of the appearance of cold ice, frozen to the bedrock, being forcibly to rtured into streamers a ncl ba ncls by the movem ent of the cntire ice bocl y at 0·6 m. /yr.

R ESUME. O n d eerit 2 tunnels, ayant chacun de 60 it 70 m de long, places I' un a u-dessus d e I'autre it 4 000 e t 4020 m d 'altitude qui ont ete creuses dans le neve fro id e t la glace clu Breithorn cl ans les Alpes. D ans le tunnel superi eur, la tempera ture s'es t eIevee cl e - 5,50 C it I'entree jusqu ' it - 0,50 C a u contac t d e la roehe situee it 70 m: d ans le tunnel inferi e lll', la temperature passe cl e - 5,50 C it 0 0 C it 60 m de I'entree, da ns un reservoir eI 'eau. D a ns les eleux cas, d es fi ssures ou d e pe tites c revasses refe rmees, coupees par le tunnel, ont refroieli la glace localement, en el essous d e la tempera ture que I'on a lll'ait pu attenelre it partir cl ' une cOlll'be reguliere. O n di scute l' origine clu rese rvo ir eI 'eau.

De petites poehes d 'air occlus dans d e petites fentes e t creux refermes, on t e te percees entre 60 e t 70 m it panir el e I'en tree dans le tunnel superieur. L'odeur piquante de I'air a insi libe re a ete atlribuee it I'ozone : (a ) it cause cl e son oeleur caracteristique, (b) it ca use d e sa reac tion sur le caoutcho uc, et (c) par suite de tests effectues avec un pa pier amiclonne it I' iodure cl e po tassium. O n suppose que I'existcnce cl e I'ozone es t due it de peti tes etince ll es provenant d e cha rges elec triques sta tiques creees d a ns la g lace froide sou m ise sous­pression a ux c raquem ents ou deformations; eles pho togra phics prises avec des temps d 'exposition d e 8 heures, la nuit el ans le tunnel superi eur, montrent appa remment de te ll es e tincelles.

On decrit I'aspec t de la glace fro ide, ge lee sur le lit rocheux , q ui es t defo rmee avec force en co ura nts et baneles pa r suite d'un mouvement de 0 ,6 m pa r a n de la masse enti ere el e g lace.

Z USAMMEN FASSUNG . Zwei Tunnels , j eeler 60- 70 m lang , einer unmittelbar liber cl em anderen in 4000 unci in 4020 m libe r d em M eer , wurclen dureh ka lten Firn und ka ltes Eis a m Breitho rn in den Sch weize r Alpen gegra ben. Eine entsprechencle Beschreibung wird gegebe n. Im oberen Tunnel stieg cli e T empera tur von - 5,50 C a m Porta l bis - 0,50 a n d e r Fe lsgrenze 70 m vom Porta l entfernt. Im unteren Gletscher stieg die T empera tur von - 5,5 0 a uf 0° bis zu einem VVasserrese rvoir, class 60 111 vom Porta l entfernt ist. In beiclen Fa llen unterklihlten Risse odeI' kle in c verschlossene Spalten , die clurch cl en Tunnel a ufgeschni tten wurclen, ortlich das ka lte Eis unter cli e T emperatur, clie von ein e r a usg lcichenden Kurve erwa rte t w urde. Die l1logliche E ntstehung d es Wasserrese rvoirs wircl diskutiert.

Kleine Be trage von Luft, die unter massigem Druck steht. unci in kl e inen verschlossen en Rissen unci Lochern cingeschlossen ist , wurden in Entfernungen zwischen 60 unci 70 111 vom Porta l im o beren Tunnel angeschnittcn. De r stechende Geruch cler Luft , cli e d adurch frei wurde, konnte al s Ozon idel1lifi z ie rt we rclen (a ) durch se inen charakteristischen G eruch, (b) clurch seine R ea ktion a uf K a utschuk und (c) clurch Ka lium J odid Stii rkepa pie rtes te . Es wircl vermute t, cl ass clieses Ozon durch kl eine Funken entsteht, die von sta tischen Aufladungen herrlihren ; cli cse bauen si ch im ka lten Eis a uf, wenn es unter Druck Z UI1l Reissen gebracht ocler defonniert wird. Pho togra phisehe Aufnahmcn mit E xpositionszeiten von 8 Stunelen zcig ten im oberen Tunnel bci Nacht d eutli ch offenbar solche Funken.

Es wircl eine Beschreibung cl e r Erscheinung von ka lten Eis gegeben, d as a m Felsun terg runcl a ngefroren ist unci durch die Bewegung cl cs ganzen Eiskorpers mit 0,6 mlJa hr un ter sta rkstem Zwang so beansprucht wird, dass S tromlinien und Bander entstehcn.

SOME 52 years ago, at Yale, the la te Professor Joseph Barrell brought to my a ttention a p aper by Willard D . Johnson (1904) , Johnson described how he had descended into an open berg­schrund on Mt. Lyell in the Sierras, and having noted in it copious melt water, cOUl'sing down its rock wa ll , yet that qua ntities of icicles fes tooned other pa rts of th e na ked rock, he concluded that the ra pid alternations of m elting and freezing to be found in such bergschrunds esta b­lished bergschrunds in genera l as the specifi c cutting tool by which glacier cirques were c reated.

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JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY

It is to be noted at this point that even in the temperate Alps by far the greater part of the snow and ice areas- some 80 per cent in the Zermatt area, for example- is well above the firn line, and the nivi fields of such areas are necessarily " cold" ice- snow or ice which is, in substance, below 0° C. (actually, at the mean annual temperature of the atmosphere for the altitude under study) . It is to these areas of cold ice, bergschrunds or no bergschrunds, that one must look, in my opinion, to understand processes of cirque erosion , especially under former, more extensive glaciation.

With this objective in mind , I had attempted in 1952 to excavate a tunnel through to bedrock in the cold nivi at the 4,000 m. contour, under the Silbersattel, on Monte Rosa in the Pennine Alps. A year later, after that first tunnel had advanced 50 m., the Silbersattel site had to be abandoned, due to increasing danger of ice falls to the crew. I then had a tunnel driven through the nivi on the nearby Sattel of Monte Rosa, elevation 4,2 0 0 m. ; this tunnel reached the rock interface (Fisher, 1955) . The results from that project can be summarized as follows : that "Sattel" tunnel, 92 m. in length, penetrated nivi the temperature of which

Horizontal s.cale in meters. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130

Fig. I . Cross-section on a north- south line of the south face of the Breithorn, showing both tunnels and the water reservoir. Isotherms, marked in degrees Fahrenheit, have been sketched in to join IJoints of equal temperature in the two tunnels, and have been proj ected up and down through the neve ~Y the author

rose with minor oscillations from - 14° C. at the beginning to - 5° C. at stations 30~40 m. and then reverted to - , 3° C. at the rock interface, at its end. Having expected to find temperatures rising all the way to bedrock, I was confused, but eventually reconciled this surprise by the fact that the rock behind the tunnel was only a subsidiary rock ridge, the opposite side of which , not so many tens of meters horizontally through the rock beyond this tunnel heading, was one great face of bare rock, exposed to the very low mean annual atmo­spheric temperature appropriate to 4,200 m., and the thermal conductivity of that solid rock, being very much higher than that of the insulating nivi (rock being relatively less insulating, see Fisher ( '955, p. 586)) , imposes on the deep nivi in contact with the rock a temperature almost as cold as that of the nivi surface.

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TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE ON THE BREITHORN

F I RST BREITHORN TUNNEL

I cast about for another site more suited to this inquiry ; it needed to be at an elevation of 4,000 m. , and to be safe from avalanches; it had to be a relatively wide neve fie ld with no rock -outcrops to leak in atmospheric temperatures (as on the Sattel ) , and with no crevasses to pipe cold air down in to the ice . The intersection of the normal tourist route up the Breithorn from Zermatt with the 4,000 m. contour, answered every requirement as a site, and ready accessi­bility by the Testa Grigia teliferique to a supply of excellent and intelligent guides in the Val Tournanche, ensured good progress.

So, in the spring of 1960, this Breithorn tunnel, at an elevation of 4,000 m. , had been driven in some 60 m. Temperatures started at - 5 .5° C. at the portal , and w ith two minor alternations attributable to minor cracks leaking in a bit of cold air, temperatures warmed up to - 0·5° C. at 62 m. (see Fig. I).

On reaching this 60 m. station in this Breithorn tunnel, my guide in charge, Armand Perron, reported to me in New York that he and his crew had unexpectedly punctured an ·enormous reservoir of water. To find such a phenomenon at 4,000 m. where the mean annual temperature, and the temperature of all neve, was substantiall y below freezing (this location was much higher than the Jungfraujoch) was most unexpected. Water in such volume never could have percolated down from above, through twenty or more meters of neve continually well below freezing. Through the courtesy of Professor Robert P. Sharp, of the Division of Geological Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, one of his assistants, Mr. William Chapple, flew over for me to the Alps inJune 1960. He accompanied my guide up to the tunnel, to the very brink of the impounded reservoir, where everything was just as first reported- an enormous reservoir of water in the ice at 4,000 m. I myself later inspected it in August 1960, and it was indeed a sight. I estimated it contained some hundreds -of thousands of li ters of water, a vast cavern, perhaps 25 m. wide (lengthwise, with the con­tours) and 6 m. across (direction of the tunnel ), its ceiling 3 m. above the tunnel, its depth 6 m. or more below the floor of the tunnel, with small icebergs sloshing around, and water -obviously in constant supply, for its water had been draining out through our tunnel for two months. This latter condition required constant cleaning out of accumulations of ice on the cold ice of the tunnel floor. Flow of this impounded water out through our tunnel increased materially in the winter of 1960- 61, a surprising contradiction to our expectation of a respite with lower water during winter temperatures. This water froze on the floor of the tunnel and required constant clearing away by the guides. When they were prevented from working by a month of severe winter blizzards, the tunnel became completely b locked up.

Haefeli and Brentani ( 1955) have a lso described similar large reservoirs of water tapped in tunneling the J ungfraujoch ice cap, and they attributed the origin of that water (Haefeli and Brentani, 1955, p. 574) to melt water from above (conditioned thermodynamically) . Under Jungfraujoch conditions, 600 m. lower a ltitude and correspondingly warmer air temperatures than on the Breithorn, greater facility exists for percolation of surface melt water; then too, a flattish plateau above whose surface was only 10 to 20 m. above the tunnel, and an ice cover just below the freezing point, are in marked contrast with the Breithorn where the temper­atures of the overlying ice were substantially colder, and the overburden of ice was two to five times that on the J ungfraujoch. Also the steep Breithorn slope invited whatever melt water appeared to run downhill , rather than seek percolation through substantial thicknesses of cold neve. In 196 I , no surface-piercing crevasses or bergschrunds existed on that Breithorn south face , even well below the 4,000 m . tunnel contour, and none had existed during the 53 yr. since I first came to know this Breithorn area . (In September 1962, for the first time in the memory of guides, a surface-piercing crevasse did open up on that slope, but even that was 20 m. below the tunnel level. )

Water supply deep within this steep Breithorn face at 4,000 m. could not, in my judgement, conceivably originate from trickles of surface melt water from above. Why it should increase in

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JOURNAL OF GLAC[OLOGY

winter posed a question, too. I can only offer the thought that this water filled an ancient (long since covered) bergschrund; that this water itself came from below, from the basal isothermal sole of the vast Breithorn plateau; the rock floor of which lay 300 m. lower down, and that this water was forced through those interior basal layers of isothermal ice, close against the rock bed of the glacier, up to the 4,000 m. level by artesian well principles; that is, the weight of the overlying neve, reaching up to 4,100 m. on that Breithorn south face (i.e. [00 m. higher than the tunnel) , was the effective load, and the added accumulation of winter snowfall on it served to raise the net water pressure within the Breithorn plateau neve sufficiently to force water several inches higher above the 4,000 m. level, which seemed to have been the point of summertime equilibrium.

Having myself visited the Jungfraujoch plateau many times, most recently in September 1962, I remain doubtful how the tens of thousands of liters of water found by Dr. Haefeli in his Jungfraujoch crevasses could have accumulated from surface melt water. In my opinion, I would think that of the melt and rain water, some small amount only would percolate into these closed crevasses, but most of it would flow off the J ungfraujoch plateau surface into the open crevasses some hundred meters down towards the Guggigletscher, there to accumulate, and on occasion to be sealed in by closing, and eventually to be forced back up under the Jungfraujoch plateau by artesian processes similar to those envisaged on the Breithorn. The existence of cold ice in actual physical contact with bedrock under the very highest area of the Jungfraujoch plateau, 600 m. lower than on the Breithorn, as reported, may be due to these same conditions as on my " Sattel" tunnel, extra cold temperatures being piped down under the ice by the superior thermal conductivity of nearby outcropping rocks, with conductivity greater than that of neve. I make the suggestion that normally existing isothermal ice (the elevation of the J ungfraujoch hardly suffices for true all-the-way-through cold neve) offers channels in areas uncontaminated by extra co ld piped in through rocks by which such water may be forced up from the Guggi area.

If that is the correct interpretation, it was a unique bit of good fortune that we selected the site of this 1960 tunnel at just exactly that critical level where we could unexpectedly observe this interplay of hydrostatic forces and of snow economy.

SECOND BREITHORN TUNNEL

The decision having been forced on us by the closing up of this 1960 Breithorn tunnel, we drove a fourth tunnel during the early months of 1961 parallel to, and 20 m. vertically above, the 1960 tunnel. The temperature ranges of both tunnels are shown in Figure 1.

This second Breithorn tunnel, as planned, drove through just over the ceiling of the water reservoir- it was possible to hear the ice falling into the water through occasional cracks- nor should I fai l to mention that in a ll these tunnels, cracks, and small crevasses in the ice are very frequent, in fact far more frequent than ever to be expected from the photogenically smooth surfaces of the wind-b lown overlying snow fields. Incidentally, the dry summer of [962 etched out several surface crevasses, a feature never before visible on the south face of the Breithorn. They were clearly the outcrops of some of these concealed cracks which had been intercepted by the tunnel. All , however, were below the level of the new tunnel.

Work progressed rapidly, and in June 196[ , my guide, Perron, reported another un­expected find, this time at 60 m. fi'om the portal (i.e. well beyond the water reservoir area) in ice continuously below - 0' 50 C. His working party had been puncturing small inclusions of " air", which " popped" , as he said, " like the popping of a child 's balloon", and at the same time, they noticed a smell, " like a hospital smell", or a gas, like, in a homely way, "the smell in a long-closed house". They wondered whether the smell might be poisonous. The rock interface was finally reached, a few meters beyond where this " odor" was found. I visited the tunnel a month later (August 1961 ) and the " smell" still persisted. I identified it by odor, subject to confirmation, as ozone; I will describe confirmatory tests below.

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TWO TUNNELS I N COLD I CE ON THE BREITHOR N

The appearance of the ice at the rock interface was unique. As shown in FigUl"es 2 and 3, the ice is draw n out, as though on a rack in a medieval torture chamber, as it is pu lled down­hill , slowly a nd re lentlessly, under the pressure of an overlay of a 100 m . of neve uphi ll. M easurements o f movement, over a period of several a utumn months, indicated a displace­m ent of about 60 cm ./yr. for the ice, with respect to the rock.

Fig. 2. COlltact of ice and rock at 65 TIl . ill the IIfJPer tunnel

I persona lly extracted from the ice a sma ll rock, about 100 g. in weight, a meter from the rock interface; it had obviously been plucked from the live rock by the ice, powerfu ll y a dhering to it everywhere by freeze. No other rocks were found at any p lace during excavation, n or was there any substance found suitab le for 14C a na lysis.

DISCUSSION

We can now look back over ha lf a century to 'vV . D . J ohnson 's bergschrund cirque-eros ion hypothesis mentioned above . J ohnson, before the era of American interes t in mounta in climbing, appa rently did not have a ny acquaintance with the majestic ice fields of the Canadian R ockies, Alaska, or the A lps. Our own Sie rras possessed only very sm a ll g laciers, and he could have had no knowledge of the overwh elm ing proportion (above 80 per cent) of co ld-ice areas cha racteristic of A lpine type g laciers, so he can be pardoned for having attached undue importa n ce to his obset"vation of local melt water and icicles in close association in what was reall y a doll 's-house m odel of a full-scale bergschrund. So far as I have read , no one at that time had ventured the theory of plucking as contributing to g lacier erosion. Never the­less, in m y opinion , Johnson was correct in his " alternating temperature" princip le, and he must be considered as the orig inator of the theory of oscillations between freeze a nd melt as the fundamenta l key to glacier erosion of headwalls; only, such oscillations a re on cycles of cen turies instead of hours. A good perspective on times of processes is given by Carey ( ) 962) .

Of course, dee p within the entrails of the majestic cold-ice accumu la tion areas, in the Alps a nd elsewhere, there can be no daily flu ctuation of temperature at the site of rock contact fluctuation between tru ly cold ice and ice at the pressure-melting po int.

Page 6: TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT ON THE BREITHORN · TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT 4,000 m. ON THE BREITHORN By J OEL E. FISHER (New York) ABSTRACT. A description is given of two tunnels,

5IB JOURN AL OF GLACIOLOGY

There is, however, within the ice of every such area (near bergschrunds) a contour line separating true cold ice above it from isothermal ice below it. A major bergschrund typically marks that contour. The cold ice is cold by reason of exposure to cold atmosphere.

The heat source of the adjoining isothermal area, as I set forth in an earlier paper (Fisher, 1955) is a combination of the flow upwards into it of internal heat of the earth, and the release within it of heat of friction of the moving glacier, as a lso mentioned above. The first has been measured a vast number of times and is in the order of 30 cal. /cm.' yr. The second source can be quite readily approximated for any simple glacier whose velocity is small (i.e . whose kinetic energy of motion approximates to zero) because the total heat of friction will be approximately equal to the thermal equivalent of the total gravitational potential energy of the vertical column of ice lying above. This is approximately true, as almost all friction of motion occurs in the basal levels of the ice.

Fig . 3 . Flow pattern in the ice within a meter or so oJ the rock interface

To reinstate W . D . Johnson's hypothesis, it will be clear that if the internal heat flow of the earth itself varies over long periods (it does vary from region to region , and presumably must vary, locally, over periods of time) , or if the hydrostatic head of ice varies, due to varying overlying snowfall accumulations, or if the mean annual temperature of the local atmosphere changes the location of this interior ice-thermal boundary in its contact with bedrock, then the location of the major bergschrunds will move up or down. The resulting long term oscil­lations of the freeze- thaw boundary plane, the biting teeth of a glacier, exist, only on a much larger scale than Johnson foresaw, for periods of such oscillation would seem to be hundreds of years, not daily as he visualized on Mt. Lyel\.

It is the writer's opinion that every glacial era, when in long-term equilibrium, will develop its cold glaciers to such thickness that, however cold their surfaces, their sole, their basal ice, will be at pressure-melting point, and there must exist, at some point on their beds, a boundary between cold ice, frozen to the bedrock, and wet isothermal ice. This boundary is invited by external conditions to oscillate slowly back and forth, with powerful shattering and removal of rock as a result.

Page 7: TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT ON THE BREITHORN · TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT 4,000 m. ON THE BREITHORN By J OEL E. FISHER (New York) ABSTRACT. A description is given of two tunnels,

TWO TUNN E LS I N COLD I CE ON THE BREITHORN 5 19

To revert to the odor reported by the guides . During the winter of 1961- 62 I confirmed this was ozone by exposing lengths of (dentist's) elastic rubber in the end of the tunnel , a nd in the valley below, each weighted moderately, and repeated this test a second time (see Fig. 4) . The rubber within the tunnel lost its elasticity as measured by the elongations considerably faster than the rubber in the valley ; further, the " tunnel" rubber suffered severe pitting while the " valley" rubber was unpitted. This pitting a nd loss of elasticity of the rubber exposed in the tunnel is characteristic of ozone action on rubber. Figure 4 shows a photograph of samples of both after six months' exposure.

Fig . 1. Specimens of stretched rubber. The lift-hand strip was exlJosed ill the valley f or six months, the other two strips were eX/Josed in the tll /lllel . N ote the pit/illg of the tunnel ntbber, characteristic of the action of ozone

In September 1962, on revisiting the tunnel , I brought a long for further verification a gas ana lysis apparatus kindly supplied to me by Professor V ictor H. R egener of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Designed particularly for on-the-spot qualitative identification of ozone, it consisted, in essence, of a glass vessel (c. 25 cm .3 in vo lume) conta ining 10 cm ) of 10 per cent solution of potassium iodide in doubly distilled water. A standard starch paper was placed in the potassium iodide solu tion , and air could be pumped through the solution , a t a controlled rate, by squeezing a rubber bulb. If more than the normal concen tration of ozone were present, iodine released by such ozone should cause the starch paper to turn from white through pink and lavender to deep blue, depending on the concentration of ozone. Tests with this outside the tunnel gave no color to the starch paper after 300 squeezings of the rubber bulb. That served as a null check. R epeated tests close up to the tunnel heading, each produced a very distinct pink color in the starch paper after 100 squeezings of the rubber bulb. Qualified chemists have a lso examined samples of this pink discolored starch paper , and stated that, under conditions of the tests, it indicated an abnorma l amount of ozone or other

Page 8: TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT ON THE BREITHORN · TWO TUNNELS IN COLD ICE AT 4,000 m. ON THE BREITHORN By J OEL E. FISHER (New York) ABSTRACT. A description is given of two tunnels,

y20 JOUR NA L O F G LACIOLOGY

oxidizing agent in the air in the tunnel. r am satisfied, from smell , from rubber pitting, and from the iodine test, that ozone is found deep within the ice of cold ice glaciers such as this.

My best explanation of the origin of this ozone is that this cold ice (dielectric), develops electric charges, partly by deformation in its "torture chamber" as it is dragged a long over the rock, and partly by physical cracking, and that minute sparks resulting from these static electric charges ionize air entrapped in that same ice. This ice has a density of about 0· 82- 0·85 g. /cm), less than o· 92 g. /cm) on account of included air. The report of Perron , describing the escape of air under pressure as his work advanced, unwittingly confirmed that entrapped air, actually under some pressure, is available for ionization into ozone if and when static electricity develops. r have tried to verify this "static electric charge". I had a ll-night­long time exposure photographs made of the ice, deep within the tunnel, up near the rock interface ; on enlarging these photographs 25 diameters, it is possible to identify half a dozen irregular sharp white markings on the enlargements, definitely not imperfections in the fi lm, and far too large for emulsion grain. While I am not reproducing these "spark photo­graphs" here because r fear they would not show up sharply in reproduction , I will be glad to loan a copy of the enlargement to any reader who might be interested. Those irregular white marks record, in my opinion, minute static electric sparks in the ice.

r also took a gold-leaf electroscope up to the tunnel, but gold-leaf electroscopes do not take kindly to a combination of travel by air, motor, telij'irique and foot, nor is the dark, cold interio r of an ice tunnel convenient for attaching a new piece of gold-leaf. r will try again.

I will conclude with saying that I hope to keep the tunnel cleaned out for one more year, to be accessible for examination by anyone in terested. Armand Perron, m y guide in Val Tournanche, wi ll be very happy to accompany anyone as guide.

MS. received 23 October 1962

REFERENCES Carey, S. W . 1962. Scale of geotec lonic phenomena. Journal of the Geological Society of India, Vo1. 3, p. 97- 105.

[Also published as University qf Tasmania. D epartment of Geology . Publication 103.] Fisher, J . E. 1955. Internal temperatures of a cold g lacier a nd conclusions therefrom. J ournal of Glaciolog)', Vo!. 2 ,

No. 18, p. 582- 9 1. H aefeli, R ., and Brentani , F. 1955. Observations in a cold ice cap. JOllmal of Glaciology, Vo!. 2, No. 18, p. 571 - 81. J ohnson, W. D . 1904. Th e profi le of maturity in Alp ine g lacial erosion. Journal of Geology, Vo!. 12, No. 7, p. 569- 78.