Sorge’s Law of Densification of Snow on High Polar Glaciers

Abstract

Ernst Sorge, a member of Wegener’s Greenland Expedition 1930–31, discovered an important law on the densification of snow in high polar glaciers. It is here given a simple mathematical form and some of its implications are formulated and discussed. Apart from its significance to glaciology and snow mechanics, Sorge’s law should also be useful in the study of consolidation of accumulating fine-grained lacustrian and oceanic sediments.

Comparing Traditional Mass Balance Measurements with Long-term Volume Change Extracted from Topographical Maps: A Case Study of Storbreen Glacier in Jotunheimen, Norway, for the Period 1940-1997

“…The volume change calculated from the DTMs assumes an unchanged density profile between the periods of mapping, in other words, a steady-state glacier is assumed (Bader 1954). The geometric and volumetric changes of Storbreen reported in this paper show that Storbreen was not in such a steady state in the investigated periods.…”

Svalbard glacier elevation changes and contribution to sea level rise

“…[24] We assume that all volume changes are of glacier ice [Bader, 1954] and multiply dV ice /dt by 0.917 (the density of ice) to obtain water equivalent volume change rates (dV water /dt). This assumption is valid in the ablation areas, but is more uncertain in the accumulation areas, where firn thickness or density may increase or decrease.…”

Sustained rapid shrinkage of Yukon glaciers since the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year

“…[10] We converted volume changes to mass changes by assuming a constant density-depth profile [Bader, 1954] (that is, considering volume losses to consist of glacier ice only) and multiplying by the ratio of the density of ice to water (d i /d w = 0.917 [e.g., Paterson, 1994]). Thickness change rates were calculated by dividing mass changes by the average of the old and new glacier areas [e.g., Echelmeyer et al, 1996;Arendt et al, 2002].…”