Newtonian viscous material (n = 1 in the creep relation).

Let P0(x, y) indicate the normal stress exerted by the bed on the base of the ice.
The average
value of P0 is the stress needed to support the weight of the glacier. Because of
the thin water
film, the rock-ice interface supports no tangential stress along the interface. The
mechanical
equilibrium of the glacier parallel to the mean bed must therefore depend on
bedrock bumps
projecting upward into the ice.To balance the gravitational force per unit area
parallel to themean
bed (the “driving stress” defined in Section 8.2.1), P0(x, y)mustfluctuate about
its average, with
greatest compression on the upstream sides of bumps and least compression on the
downstream
sides. For overall equilibrium, parts of the bumps must slope uphill.
For the ice to remain in contactwith the bed, as assumed, theremust be a certain
combination
of melting, refreezing, and up-and-down and sideways motions for a specified
sliding velocity.
The analysis finds the distribution of P0(x, y) that produces the necessary heat
flow and ice
deformation. This pressure distribution P0(x, y) results in drag between the ice
and the bed,
a force acting parallel to the xy-plane. The average drag force per unit area of
the xy-plane
constitutes the basal shear stress τb. It equals the average of the x-component of
P0(x, y) applied
to the bedrock surface. For sliding at the observed velocity ub, this shear stress
must equal the
overall stress implied by the glacier’s driving stress (the force per unit area due
to down-slope
weight and pressure gradients in the ice). This problem has an exact solution under
the stated
assumptions.
These analyses