ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with some basic properties of snow and ice that govern environmental processes and research procedures. Snow is either a suspension or a compact of ice particles, with air, and sometimes water, in the interstices. Most of the seasonal or perennial ice encountered at high altitude is deposited snow, or glacier ice formed from snow. The snow and ice on high ice caps and high mountains must be about the purest water that occurs anywhere in large quantities, but there are some impurities, even in the most remote and apparently unpolluted regions. Snow and ice deform quite easily at low stress levels, and gravity body forces are enough to keep both snow and ice continually on the move. Low surface friction is one of the most agreeable properties of snow and ice. A great deal of the world's ice is formed by the dry compression of snow, and compressibility exerts a controlling influence in many practical problems.
