Articles | Volume 19, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5095-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5095-2025
Research article
 | 
27 Oct 2025
Research article |  | 27 Oct 2025

Folding due to anisotropy in ice, from drill-core-scale cloudy bands to km-scale internal reflection horizons

Paul D. Bons, Yuanbang Hu, M.-Gema Llorens, Steven Franke, Nicolas Stoll, Ilka Weikusat, Julien Westhoff, and Yu Zhang

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Cited articles

Alley, R. B., Gow, A. J., Meese, D. A., Fitzpatrick, J. J., Waddington, E. D., and Bolzan, J. F.: Grain-scale processes, folding, and stratigraphic disturbance in the GISP2 ice core, J. Geophys. Res.,102, 26819–26830, https://doi.org/10.1029/96JC03836, 1997. 
Bell, R. E., Tinto, K., Das, I., Wolovick, M., Chu, W., Creyts, T. T., Frearson, N., Abdi, A., and Paden, J. D.: Deformation, warming and softening of Greenland's ice by refreezing meltwater, Nature Geoscience, 7, 497–502, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2179, 2014. 
Biot, M. A.: Folding Instability of a Layered Viscoelastic Medium under Compression, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 242, 444–454, https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1957.0187, 1957. 
Bohleber, P., Stoll, N., Rittner, M., Roman, M., Weikusat, I., and Barbante, C.: Geochemical characterization of insoluble particle clusters in ice cores using two-dimensional impurity imaging, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24, e2022GC010595, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GC010595, 2023. 
Bons, P. D., Druguet, E., Hamann, I., Carreras, J., and Passchier, C. W.: Apparent boudinage in dykes, J. Struct. Geol., 26, 625–636, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsg.2003.11.009, 2004. 
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Short summary
What causes folds in ice layers from the km scale down to the scale visible in the drill core: buckle folding due to variations in viscosity between layers, or the effect of mechanical anisotropy of ice due to an alignment of the crystal-lattice planes? Power spectra of folds in ice, a biotite schist, and numerical simulations show that folding in ice is due to the anisotropy, as the folds are self-similar, meaning that there is no characteristic fold scale that would result from buckle folding.
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