PHOTOPLASTIC EFFECT ON ICE

This paper examines the effect of ultraviolet illumination on the plastic deformation of ice single crystals. The study of ice plasticity is essential for both fundamental and applied reasons. For instance, plastic deformation of ice is a major factor in the flow of the giant ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland and of mountain glaciers. Snow densification, sintering, and ice friction are also phenomena in which plastic deformation has a role. Since ice has a very unusual atomic structure, in which oxygen atoms are ordered but protons are disordered, the motion of dislocations through ice cannot occur in the same way as in ordinary crystals. This is the intriguing subject of the research here.