Glacier Vocabulary

Is the opposite of accumulation. In glacial terms, this can occur through melting, evaporation, calving (dropping off the end into the sea) or removal by wind.

occurs when the ice and its load of rock embedded into it, move over the bedrock, acting like sandpaper, smoothing and polishing the bedrock below.

A sharp mountain ridge formed by glaciers

Is the breaking off of large chunks of ice at the end of the glacier. It is a form of ice ablation. Also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving.

Or corries or cwm (pronounced coom) are a half-open steep-sided hollow at the head of a valley or on a mountainside, formed by glacial erosion.

A low oval mound or small hill, typically one of a group, consisting of compacted boulder clay moulded by past glacial action.

A consistent body of ice that is constantly moving under its own weight.

is a shallow valley carved by a small glacier that gets cut off by a larger glacier going through beneath it. The valley floor is hanging above the floor of the larger glacial valley.

A mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier, typically as ridges at its edges or extremity.

occurs when rocks and stones become frozen to the base or sides of the glacier and are plucked from the ground or rock face as the glacier moves.

The passing of a solid straight to a gas without passing through a liquid phase. In glacier terms, the snow evaporates when sitting in the sun on a hot day.

The end of the glacier.

A large floating mass of ice detached from a glacier or ice sheet and carried out to sea.

The study of glaciers, they way they move and their effects on the environment.

Snow, especially on the upper part of a glacier, where it has not yet been compressed into ice.