Glaciological Studies in the Vicinity of Syowa Station, Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica

Abstract

There is a marked ablation zone some 15 km wide along the periphery of the Soya Coast, Lützow-Holm Bay, and here the firn limit has a maximum height of about 600 m. A controlled analysis of the snow-firn stratigraphy on the marginal slope of the ice sheet at 700 m elevation was carried out on Nov. 3, 1966. The mean annual net accumulation for the period 1956-1965 was calculated as 7.1 ± 2.2 g/㎠. The incidence of a cyclic pattern of melt-features and icy layering formed during the Antarctic summer is helpful in distinguishing winter layers from summer layers. Examination of the snow-firn stratigraphy at another observation point, 930 m above sea level, shows few melt-features and an average annual net accumulation of 14.2±6.6 g/㎠ for the period 1963-1966. Also, a rather low value of maximum mean annual snow deposition in 1966 (several tens of centimeters of snow depth at the end of October) in the Ongul Strait, suggests low precipitation in the Syowa region.