Great ablation of the Werenskiold Glacier created the need of recording the changes particularly superficial ones, after melting of its icingsGround stereophotogrammetric photos done during the Polar Expedition of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1983 enabled to prepare a map in the scale of 1:10,000 covering by its two sheets the whole glacier, a system of open crevasses inclusive. The map presents the actual state of the glacier and enables a comparison with earlier photogrammetric measurements carried out several times since 1957.
This paper contains the result of the comparison of photogrammetric records of the state of the front zone of the Werenskiold Glacier over the period 1957-1978. Two 1:5000 maps were compared. The ice volume loss at 20 m altitude intervals (only as far up as 200 m over the sea level) and changes in the ice thickness were analysed with a network of basic squares with a 50 m side in the field, using an Odra 1305 computer. This permitted a map of the altitude changes in the glacier front to be plotted with isolines every 2.5 m. The results of the photogrammetric investigations were compared with ablation observations using ablations stakes. Taking account of the motion of the lobe the total and the mean annual ice volume loss in the front zone of the Werenskiold Glacier was evaluated for the period in question.