This award supports a program detailed of laboratory studies of subglacial materials obtained from immediately below the base of Ice Stream B in West Antarctica. The four piston cores to be examined range in length from 2 to 3 meters. These core will be analyzed for their sedimentological characteristics and their physical and mechanical properties. These studies will help to test the initial conclusion that the material composing these cores is glacial till that has been transported in a subglacial shear zone whose deformation lubricates the base of the ice stream, making possible the rapid motion characteristic of the ice streams.
