On the Veined Structure of the Mueller Glacier, New Zealand

Abstract

THE Mueller Glacier, in the Mount Cook district, has a total length of between six and seven miles, with a breadth of one mile in its lower portion. Like most, if not all, of the New Zealand glaciers of the first order, the lower mile or two is so thickly covered with rock debris that the ice can only be seen in the crevasses. All through the lower portion of the glacier the veined or ribboned structure is well marked, running nearly in the direction of the glacier. But at the terminal face there are two systems of veined structure, with the same strike but crossing one another at angles between 15° and 20°. In one system the blue bands are small, from a half to one inch thick, and separated from each other by bands of white ice, with large air-bubbles, about twice the thickness of the blue bands. The blue bands are irregular and sometimes anastomose. This system is similar to the veined structure found higher up the glacier.