The Glaciers of the Alps: Being a narrative of excursions and ascents, an account of the origin and phenomena of glaciers and an exposition of the physical principles to which they are relatedTyndall, John
Science
The Glaciers of the Alps: Being a narrative of excursions and ascents, an account of the origin and phenomena of glaciers and an exposition of the physical principles to which they are related
Tyndall, John
Alps -- Description and travel; Glaciers -- Alps
The manner in which I have illustrated the production of this structure
will be understood from Fig. 43. B B are two wooden boxes, communicating
by sluice-fronts with two branch canals, which unite to a common trunk
at G. They are intended to represent respectively the trunk and
tributaries of the Unteraar Glacier, the part G being the Abschwung,
where the Lauteraar and Finsteraar glaciers unite to form the Unteraar.
The mud is first permitted to flow beneath the two sluices until it has
covered the bottom of the trough for some distance, when it is arrested.
The end of a glass tube is then dipped into a mixture of rouge and
water, and small circles are stamped upon the mud. The two branches are
thickly covered with these circles. The sluices being again raised, the
mud in the branches moves downwards, carrying with it the circles
stamped upon it; and the manner in which these circles are distorted
enables us to infer the strains and pressures to which the mud is
subjected during its descent. The figure represents approximately what
takes place. The side-circles, as might be expected, are squeezed to
oblique ovals, but it is at the junction of the branches that the chief
effect of pressure is produced. Here, by the mutual thrust of the
branches, the circles are not only changed to elongated ellipses, but
even squeezed to straight lines. In the case of the glacier this is the
region at which the structure receives its main development. To this
manifestation of the veins I have applied the term _longitudinal
structure_.
The three main sources of the blue veins are, I think, here noted; but
besides these there are many local causes which influence their
production. I have seen them well formed where a glacier is opposed by
the sudden bend of a valley, or by a local promontory which presents an
obstacle sufficient to bring the requisite pressure into play. In the
glaciers of the Tyrol and of the Oberland I have seen examples of this
kind; but the three principal sources of the veins are, I think, those
stated above.
[Sidenote: EFFORTS TO SOLVE QUESTION.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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