Year: 1975
Type: article
Abstract: A section-plane preparation technique and an operational definition of a snow grain bond are developed to allow the quantitative analysis of bonding in snow structure. Values for three-dimensional grain size, grain-bond size and number density, and related bonding measurements are presented for equi-temperature metamorphosed snow. These results from mutually orthogonal planes within a given snow block show that the assumptions of randomness and isotropy of grain and grain-bond location and orientation, necessary for stereological analysis from one plane, are satisfied to within ± 10% even after 30% uniaxial plastic deformation of the snow block. The idealization of a grain bond as a circular plane disk yields self-consistent results. The number of bonds per grain cannot be accurately determined from two-dimensional studies due to variations in the shape and size of snow grains within a given sample.
Source: Journal of Glaciology
Author: P. R. Kry
Institution: WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W101014738