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Ice streams are a type of glacier [5] and many of them have "glacier" in their name, e.g. Pine Island Glacier. Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of these lists, the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60° (the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ).
As a glacier moves down a valley, friction causes the basal ice of the glacier to melt and infiltrate joints (cracks) in the bedrock. The freezing and thawing action of the ice enlarges, widens, or causes further cracks in the bedrock as it changes volume across the ice/water phase transition (a form of hydraulic wedging), gradually loosening ...
Drift is often subdivided into unstratified (unsorted) drift (glacial till) that forms moraines and stratified drift (glaciolacustrine and fluvioglacial sediments) that accumulates as stratified and sorted sediments in the form of outwash plains, eskers, kames, varves, and so forth. The term drift clay is a synonym for boulder clay. Both are ...
Last Glacial Period, not to be confused with the Last Glacial Maximum or Late Glacial Maximum below. (The following events also fall into this period.) 48,000–28,000: Mousterian Pluvial wet in North Africa 26,500–19,000: Last Glacial Maximum, what is often meant in popular usage by "Last Ice Age" 16,000–13,000
A nunatak (from Inuit nunataq) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also called glacial islands, [2] and smaller nunataks rounded by glacial action may be referred to as rognons. [3] [4]
Areas of study within glaciology include glacial history and the reconstruction of past glaciation. A glaciologist is a person who studies glaciers. A glacial geologist studies glacial deposits and glacial erosive features on the landscape. Glaciology and glacial geology are key areas of polar research.
Elephant Foot Glacier, a well-known Piedmont glacier in Romer Lake, northeastern Greenland. [19] Piedmont glaciers are a sub-type of valley glaciers which have flowed out onto lowland plains, where they spread out into a fan-like shape. [12] [16] Examples include: Malaspina Glacier, Alaska, United States; Endeavor Piedmont Glacier, Antarctica
The word glacier is a loanword from French and goes back, via Franco-Provençal, to the Vulgar Latin glaciārium, derived from the Late Latin glacia, and ultimately Latin glaciēs, meaning "ice". [12] [13] The processes and features caused by or related to glaciers are referred to as glacial.