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- Geographic extent
- The seasonal cycle
- Ice in lakes
- Ice in rivers
Decay and ice jams
In late winter, as air temperatures rise above the freezing point, river ice begins to melt owing to heat transfer from above and to the action of the slightly warm water flowing beneath. As occurs in lake ice, river ice also may deteriorate and rot because of absorption of solar radiation. On the undersurface, the action of the turbulent flowing water causes a melt pattern in the form of a wavy relief, with the waves oriented crosswise to the current direction. Eventually, if the ice cover is not subjected to a suddenly increased flow, it may melt in place with little jamming or significant rise in water level. More likely, however, the ice may be moved and form ice jams.
During the spring in very northern areas, and during periods of midwinter thaw in more temperate areas, additional runoff from snowmelt and rain increases the flow in the river. The increased flow raises the water level and may break ice loose from the banks. It also increases the forces exerted on the ice cover. If these forces exceed the strength of the ice, the cover will move and break up and be transported downstream. At some places the quantity of ice will exceed the transport capacity of the river, and an ice jam will form. The jam may then build to thicknesses great enough to raise the water level and cause flooding. Typically, jams form where the slope of the river changes from steeper to milder or where the moving ice meets an intact ice cover—as in a large pool or at the point of outflow into a lake.
Spring breakup jams are usually more destructive than freeze-up jams because of the larger quantities of ice present. Besides causing sudden flooding, the ice itself may collide with structures and cause damage, even to the point of taking out bridges. Sometimes a jam forms, water builds up above it, and the jam breaks loose and moves downstream only to form again. This process may repeat itself several times. In northerly flowing rivers such behaviour is typical, since the upstream ice is freed first and moves toward colder, more stable ice covers.
There are a variety of means of modifying ice in rivers. Icebreaking vessels are used to clear paths for other vessels and occasionally to assist in relieving jams on large rivers. Icebreakers are used extensively in northern Europe and to some extent on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River of North America. Dusting the ice cover with a dark material such as coal dust or sand can increase the absorption of solar radiation and thus create areas of weakness that aid in an orderly breakup. Dusting has limited effectiveness, however, if a later snowfall covers the dust layer. Trenching of the ice cover with a ditching or similar machine has been practiced to create a weak zone in areas that are historically prone to jamming. Once ice jams have formed, they are sometimes blasted with explosives; however, if there is no current to transport the ice away after blasting, such measures are usually of little effect.
Ice-retention structures such as floating ice booms are used to hold ice in place and prevent it from moving downstream, where it might cause problems. There have been some attempts to control water releases from dammed reservoirs so as to induce breakup in an orderly manner, but these measures are limited to a narrow range of conditions. Air bubbler systems and flow developers (submerged motor-driven propellers) are used to melt small portions of the ice cover by taking advantage of any thermal reserve, relative to the freezing point, that may exist in the water. These are usually more successful in lakes or enclosed areas than in rivers, since the water temperature in rivers is rarely much above the freezing point.
Wastewater from the cooling of power plants, both fossil-fueled and nuclear, has sometimes been suggested as a source of energy for melting ice downstream of the release points. This method may be advantageous in small areas, but the power requirements for melting extended reaches of ice are immense. Discharges from smaller sources, such as sewage treatment plants, are generally too small to have more than a very localized effect. On the other hand, the water held in reservoirs is often somewhat warmer than freezing, and it can be released in quantities sufficient to result in extended open water downstream—the precise distance depending on how much surface area is required to cool the water back to the freezing point by heat loss to the cold air above.
Dates of first freeze-up of rivers follow patterns similar to those of lakes, with a tendency for rivers to freeze over somewhat later than smaller lakes. The many factors that affect the freezing process of rivers make generalizations difficult, however. Slower poollike reaches may freeze over, while more rapidly flowing reaches may remain open well into the winter. Breakup is even more erratic, particularly in the more temperate zones where midwinter thaws may cause a breakup that is followed by another freeze-up and a later breakup as spring temperatures arrive. As a general rule, rivers break up in response to runoff from snowmelt or rain well before lakes clear of ice—although the first shoreline melting in lakes occurs at about the same times as river breakup. In north-flowing rivers, especially in central Russia and western Canada, breakup occurs first in upstream, southerly reaches and then progresses northward with the movement of the spring thaw.George D. Ashton
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