Notes on the Important-Features Associated with Glacier

(i) Nivation:

It is the process of quarrying of rocks mostly by frost action.

(ii) Ablation:

It includes processes both evaporation and the melting of snow and ice. –

(iii) Calving:

Within fiords, glaciers come in contact with marine water and blocks of ice are found to break-off from the mass of the glacier. This process of wastage of glacier is known as calving.

(iv) Serace:

Similar to a waterfall in a river, in a steeper section of the valley, the glacier is broken up into rugged ice-pinnacles and is known as serace.

(v) Iceberg:

These are floating ice-hill on the sea-water.

(vi) Crevasses:

These are cracks formed due to differential movement within the mass of glacier. In German, they are known as Bergsckrund.

(vii) Nunatak:

A rock-mass which projects through an ice- sheet, generally found at the margins of a sheet where the ice is thinnest, is known as nunatak.