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The onset of sliding in ice sheets may not take the form of a sharp boundary between regions at the melting point, in which sliding is permitted, and regions below that temperature, in which there is no slip. Such a hard switch leads to the paradox of the bed naturally wanting to refreeze as soon as sliding has commenced. A potential alternative structure is a region of subtemperate sliding. Here temperatures are marginally below the melting point and sliding velocities slower than they would if the bed was fully temperate. Rather than being controlled by a standard sliding law, sliding velocities are then constrained by the need to maintain energy balance. This thermal structure arises in temperature-dependent sliding laws in the limit of strong sensitivity to temperature. Here, we analyse the stability of such subtemperate regions, showing that they are subject to a set of instabilities that occur at all length scales between ice thickness and ice sheet length. The fate of these instabilities is to cause the formation of patches of frozen bed, raising the possibility of highly complicated cold-to-temperate transitions with spatial structures at short length scales that cannot be resolved in large-scale ice sheet simulation codes., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2019 The Author(s).)

Flow organization into systems of fast-moving ice streams is a well-known feature of ice sheets. Fast motion is frequently the result of sliding at the base of the ice sheet. Here, we consider how this basal sliding is first initiated as the result of changes in bed temperature. We show that an abrupt sliding onset at the melting point, with no sliding possible below that temperature, leads to rapid drawdown of cold ice and refreezing as the result of the increased temperature gradient within the ice, and demonstrate that this result holds regardless of the mechanical model used to describe the flow of ice. Using this as a motivation, we then consider the possibility of a region of 'subtemperate sliding' in which sliding at reduced velocities occurs in a narrow range of temperatures just below the melting point. We confirm that this prevents the rapid drawdown of ice and refreezing of the bed, and construct a simple numerical method for computing steady-state ice sheet profiles that include a subtemperate region. The stability of such an ice sheet is analysed in a companion paper., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests., (© 2019 The Author(s).)

Using a new biaxial friction apparatus, we conducted experiments of ice-on-rock friction in order to better understand basal sliding of glaciers and ice streams. A series of velocity-stepping and slide-hold-slide tests were conducted to measure friction and healing at temperatures between -20°C and melting. Experimental conditions in this study are comparable to subglacial temperatures, sliding rates and effective pressures of Antarctic ice streams and other glaciers, with load-point velocities ranging from 0.5 to 100 µm s -1 and normal stress σ n  = 100 kPa. In this range of conditions, temperature dependences of both steady-state friction and frictional healing are considerable. The friction increases linearly with decreasing temperature (temperature weakening) from μ = 0.52 at -20°C to μ = 0.02 at melting. Frictional healing increases and velocity dependence shifts from velocity-strengthening to velocity-weakening behaviour with decreasing temperature. Our results indicate that the strength and stability of glaciers and ice streams may change considerably over the range of temperatures typically found at the ice-bed interface.This article is part of the themed issue 'Microdynamics of ice'., (© 2016 The Author(s).)