The Editor,

The Journal of Glaciology

Sir, Sand Pillars

The sand pillar illustrated in the photograph, Fig. 2, p. 438, was found on the medial moraine of Tverrk.breen in Jotunheimen, some 500 m. from the glacier snout. It consists of stratified sand which had been deposited in a melt hole in the ice. As these pillars melt out of the ice the sand often pours down and an unstratified heap of material builds up around their feet. When the ice has disappeared one generally finds only a conical heap of sand which may or may not have a stratified centre. It is to be expected that the remnants of these sand-filled holes would be more common on stationary dead ice than on moving glaciers. It is possible that they may explain some of the isolated sand cones in dead ice landscapes from the Ice Age.

Fig. 2

A pillar of stratified sand originally filling a vertical melt hole in the ice of Tverråbreen, Jotunheimen. (See letter p. 457)

Olav Liestöl

Norsk Polarinstitutt, Oslo 23 February 1950