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Ablation zone or ablation area refers to the low-altitude area of a glacier or ice sheet below firn with a net loss in ice mass. This loss can result from melting , sublimation , evaporation , ice calving , aeolian processes like blowing snow , avalanche , and any other ablation .
The diagrams on the right demonstrate the data collected by the Commission for Glaciology of the BAdW since 1965 on the growth of the Vernagtferner glacier. The upper diagram shows the glacier's area, with the ablation and accumulation areas (nutrient and supply areas) displayed in different colors.
The mass balance, or the difference between snow accumulation and snow and ice ablation, is crucial to glacier health and its survival. The Columbia Glacier in Alaska is a large tidewater glacier that began a drastic retreat in the 1970s due to climate fluctuations and began discharging large quantities of icebergs into Prince William Sound ...
Ice calving, also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving, is the breaking of ice chunks from the edge of a glacier. [1] It is a form of ice ablation or ice disruption. It is the sudden release and breaking away of a mass of ice from a glacier, iceberg, ice front, ice shelf, or crevasse. The ice that breaks away can be classified as an ...
The ice cliff of the left side of the ice fall and above the debris covering the glacier is 20 to 40 metres (66 to 131 ft) high. Typical of mountain glaciers, this icefall forms as the ice flows from a high elevation plateau or basin accumulation zone to a lower valley ablation zone.
Ablation can refer to mass loss from the upper surface of a glacier or ocean-driven melt and calving on the face of a glacier terminus. [7] Ablation can refer either to the processes removing ice and snow or to the quantity of ice and snow removed. Debris-covered glaciers have also been shown to greatly impact the ablation process.
As temperatures increase, glaciers begin to retreat faster, causing more glacial till to be deposited in the form of terminal moraines. However, when temperatures decrease, zone of accumulation goes into overdrive. This starts a process where the accumulation of snow, in the zone of accumulation is greater than loss due to melting or ablation.
A glacier stream is a channelized area that is formed by a glacier in which liquid water accumulates and flows. [1] Glacial streams are also commonly referred to as "glacier stream" or/and "glacial meltwater stream". The movement of the water is influenced and directed by gravity and the melting of ice. [1]