On the interplay between metamorphism and densification of snow
Abstract
Local values of temperature, temperature gradient and overburden stress as driving conditions for metamorphism and densification highly fluctuate inside the snowpack. As a consequence snowpacks evolve to highly stratified structures, which are important to understand for remote sensing applications and the interpretation of structural signatures in deeper parts of polar firn columns. The local evolution of a snowpack is determined by the mutual coupling between metamorphism, which is driven by surface energy minimization and temperature gradients, and compaction of the porous structure, which is driven by gravity and overburden stress. Both processes occur on similar time scales and their mutual coupling is thus of key importance for the structural evolution of snowpacks. We give an overview about the relevance of microstructural aspects in this context which is obtained from micro-computed tomography of various cm-sized snow samples under different driving conditions of temperature, temperature gradients and externally applied stress.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.C32B..02L
- Keywords:
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- 0724 CRYOSPHERE / Ice cores;
- 0736 CRYOSPHERE / Snow;
- 0758 CRYOSPHERE / Remote sensing