Mechanical Behavior of Ice Along the 2040 m Vostok Core, Antarctica

Uniaxial and biaxial compression tests were carried out on ice samples from the 2040 m Vostok ice core. It is shown that the ice viscosity does not significantly change with depth. As a result the high impurity content in glacial ice does not seem to influence the mechanical behavior of the Vostok ice core. The measured enhancement factor, smaller than 1, is caused by the particular orientation of c -axes in this polar ice. It is deduced that the viscosity of Vostok ice for horizontal shear is high compared with that of other ice cores.