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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
Ice rafting
Water bodies; Glaciers
The transportation of glacier sediment away from the ice margin by icebergs. Sediment transported by floating ice and deposited in the ocean is called glacial-marine sediment. Deposited in lakes, it ...
Glacier flow
Water bodies; Glaciers
The movement of ice in a glacier, typically in a downward and outward direction, caused by the force of gravity. 'Normal' flow rates are in feet per day. 'Rapid' flow rates (i.e. surge) are in 10s or ...
Ice-marginal lake
Water bodies; Glaciers
A lake that is located adjacent to the terminus of a glacier. Typically, these lakes form in bedrock basins scoured by the glacier. They enlarge as the glacier retreats. Sometimes they are dammed by ...
Drumlin
Water bodies; Glaciers
An elongated ridge of glacial sediment sculpted by ice moving over the bed of a glacier. Generally, the down-glacier end is oval or rounded and the up-glacier end tapers. The shape is often compared ...
Disarticulation
Water bodies; Glaciers
Disarticulation is the process through which large blocks of ice, sometimes greater than .5 miles in width, detach from the thinning and retreating terminus of a glacier that ends in a body of water. ...
Suncups
Water bodies; Glaciers
A series of bowl-like depression melted into a snow or ice surface, separated by a network of connected ridges. Individual suncups may be more than three feet deep and ten feet in diameter. Suncups ...
Moulin
Water bodies; Glaciers
A narrow, tubular chute or crevasse through which water enters a glacier from the surface. Occasionally, the lower end of a moulin may be exposed in the face of a glacier or at the edge of a stagnant ...
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