20 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
Terminal moraine
Water bodies; Glaciers
A cross-valley, ridge-like accumulation of glacial sediment that forms at the farthest point reached by the terminus of an advancing glacier.
Mass balance
Water bodies; Glaciers
A measure of the change in mass of a glacier at a certain point for a specific period of time. The balance between accumulation and ablation.
Firn line
Water bodies; Glaciers
A line across the glacier, from edge to edge, that marks the transition between exposed glacier ice (below) and the snow-covered surface of a glacier (right). During the summer melt season, this line ...
Arete
Water bodies; Glaciers
A jagged, narrow ridge that separates two adjacent glacier valleys or cirques. The ridge frequently resembles the blade of a serrated knife. A French term referring to the bones in a fish backbone.
Braided stream
Water bodies; Glaciers
A stream that is characterised by a complex network of branches that continuously separate and reunite. Streams braid when they have a much greater sediment load than they can carry.
Firn
Water bodies; Glaciers
An intermediate stage in the transformation of snow to glacier ice. Snow becomes firn when it has been compressed so that no pore space remains between flakes or crystals, a process that takes less ...
Glacial groove
Water bodies; Glaciers
A linear depression, inches to miles in length, produced by the removal of rock or sediment by the erosive action of a glacier.
