Strain in the ice sheet deduced from the crystal-orientation fabrics from bare icefields adjacent to the Sør-Rondane Mountains, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica

Structural analyses of ice collected from the bare ice surface in the region of the S0r-Rondane Mountains were carried out. Crystal-orientation fabrics and the disposition of surface cracks were investigated to determine the stress/strain configuration in the ice sheet near the mountains. Single-maximum fabric patterns with the axis of the maximum roughly perpendicular to the flow line on the horizontal plane were observed. It was deduced from the observations that the ice exhibits a fabric pattern indicating that the ice sheet is subjected to vertical shear strain between the ice flow and the nunataks.