11 Terms
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Glaciers
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses, seracs, and other distinguishing features. They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.
Industry: Water bodies
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Glaciers
Little ice age
Water bodies; Glaciers
The most recent interval of temperate glacier expansion and advance on Earth. It began ~650 years ago and continued into the 20th century in many locations. Temperate glaciers in North America, South ...
Ogive
Water bodies; Glaciers
An arcuate, convex, down-glacier-pointing band or undulation that forms on the surface of a glacier at the base of an icefall. Two types of ogives occur: wave ogives, which are undulations of varying ...
Ice sheet
Water bodies; Glaciers
A thick, subcontinental to continental-scale accumulation of glacier ice and perennial snow that spreads from a centre of accumulation, typically in all directions.
Dendrochronology
Water bodies; Glaciers
The study of tree rings and subfossil wood to provide information about the glacial and climatic history of an area.
Pit pond
Water bodies; Glaciers
A depression in an outwash plain by the melting of a block of ice floated to its depositional site by meltwater and subsequently buried by sediment. As it melts, a depression in the surface of the ...
Cirque
Water bodies; Glaciers
A bowl-shaped, amphitheater-like depression eroded into the head or the side of a glacier valley. Typically, a cirque has a lip at its lower end. The term is French and is derived from the Latin word ...
Crevasse
Water bodies; Glaciers
A crack or series of cracks that open in the surface of a moving glacier in response to differential stresses caused by glacier flow. They range in shape from linear to arcuate, in length from feet ...
