On the flow of polythermal glaciers. II. Surface wave analysis

Abstract

We show how the ‘reduced’ model developed in part I of this paper may be used to derive a nonlinear hyperbolic equation which describes the passage of kinematic waves along the surface of a valley glacier. Qualitative descriptions of large-scale snout movements and the formation and evolution of surface shocks are found from this approach, and earlier results of Nye (1960) are reproduced in the limit where surface disturbance amplitudes are ‘small’.