MOULINS: FORMATION AND SIGNIFICANCE
B.R. Mavlyudov
Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia
Keywords: internal drainage of glaciers, moulins, slip planes inside ice
Abstract
The reasons and conditions for the formation and change of moulins are considered on the base of author’s own data and on published data. Moulins can form above the water level in crevasses in the ice column and cannot form below the water level. The cylindrical shape of moulins is associated with the spraying of water jets at a certain depth from glacier surface. Questions related to different mechanisms of moulin formation, their depth, age, water level fluctuations are considered. A possible connection between moulins and the internal drainage system of glaciers is shown. Since there are glaciers in which water does not penetrate to the bed through moulins, the question of the connection between moulins and thrusts in the ice thickness is being considered.
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