Glossary of Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Terms: Encyclopedia Arctica Volume 1: Geology and Allied Subjects

Author Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962

Glossary of Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Terms

GLOSSARY OF SNOW, ICE, AND PERMAFROST TERMS

Ablation (Wastage).
The removal of surface waste of snow or ice due to melting, evaporation, wind action, or other causes. As a glacier– wasting process, ablation consists primarily of melting and evaporation; but removal by wind or loss by calving may also be included. Most glacier ablation is a surface process; when it occurs on the walls of crevasses, in tunnels, or under a glacier it is said to be internal (1; 47).
Ablation, area of (Area of dissipation) .
The area of a glacier, the down– stream section, which loses during an ablation season not only its cover of snow and firn but also some of the underlying ice as well, undergoing in consequence a net loss of substance (14; 15).
Accumulation, area of .
The area of a glacier where annually more snow accumu– lates than is removed by ablation, so that substance is added to this part of the glacier (14; 15).
Acicular ice (Fibrous ice, Satin ice) .
Formed at the bottom of ice (near the contact with water); consists of numerous long crystals and hollow tubes of variable form having layered arrangement and con– taining bubbles (31).

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Active layer (Mollisol) .
The top layer of frozen ground which is subject to alternate freezing and thawing, depending upon the season of the year (9; 23; 52).
Active method of construction .
Method by which permafrost is thawed and kept unfrozen at and near a structure (31). (See Passive method .)
Active permafrost .
Permafrost which, after having been thawed through natural or artificial causes, is able to return to permafrost under the present climate (31).
Adfreezing strength (Congelating stress) .
Resistance to the force that is required to pull apart two objects which adhere to one another as a result of the binding action of freezing. In Russian-language reports this term is frequently used to mean tangential adfreezing strength (31).
Advance .
See Glacier advance .
Advection fog or Advective fog .
The fog caused when warm moist air passes over a colder surface and is cooled to a temperature which pro– duces condensation (50).
Agdlissartoq [E].
See Frost mound .
Aggradation of permafrost (Pergelation) .
Growth of permafrost under the present climate due to natural or artificial causes (31).
Air hoar (Pogonip) .
Crystals sublimed upon objects above the ground level or on snow surfaces (40).
Aklavik [E].
Literally, “a place where there is a draft”; a blowhole. (An identical word, aklavik or aktlavik, means “a place where there are gir^ri^zzly bears,” Ursus richardsoni ) (47).
Alpine glacier .
See Valley glacier .

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Amorphous snow .
See Crystal, irregular .
Anchor ice .
Some use this term for all submerged ice attached to the bottom regardless of its mode of formation; others feel it should be limited to ice anchored on the bottom of streams and rivers that are flowing too swiftly for surface ice to form. Anchor ice is firmly anchored to underwater objects as differentiated from frazil ice which sometimes accumulates there but is only lightly attached (39; 47; 51a). (See Bottom ice, Depth ice .)
Animal fog .
See Biofog .
Anniu [E].
Any kind of snow intended for melting into water for drinking or cooking (47). (See Water snow .)
Anraum [G].
See Fog deposit.
Anticyclone .
See Glacial anticyclone.
Apun [E].
Snow that has been lying on the ground long enough so it cuts readily with a knife or saw into blocks suitable for structures like windbreak walls and snowhouses. From Alaskan and northwest Canadian Eskimo word meaning “snow lying on the ground”; the southern West Greenland form is sput ^ (47)^ . (See Compacted snow, Fallen snow, Snowcrete .)
Aputit [E].
Blocks cut from spun ; the Coronation Gulf name for a dome-shaped snowhouse made of such blocks (the regular Eskimo snowhouse) (47).
Aquifer .
A water-bearing geologic formation (23).
Arctic pack .
See Polar pack .
Are^ê^te .
A knife-edged mountain ridge commonly crested with snow, formed by the continuous growth of cirques on opposite sides of the crest. As a result the mountain range develops a sharp main ridge with sharp

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lateral spurs. In the alpine sense ar e^ê^te applies equally to a snow or rock ridge (15; 64).
Asymmetrical crystal .
See Crystal, irregular .
Aufeis [G].
Heavy deposits of ice that are formed over the flood plains of arctic rivers. In the Alaska-Yukon section, these deposits are called “glaciers” by miners and even by some geologists. “Flood ice” and “flooding ice” have also been used (26). (See Icing .)
Auftauboden [G].
Thawing or thawed surface soil (7). (See Active layer .)
Avalanche .
A large mass of snow and ice, or of earth, rock, etc., detached from its position and moving swiftly down a mountainside. A snow avalanche is larger than a snowslide and potentially destructive, whereas a snowslide is not (47; 51a).
Avalanche tip .
A hard mass ^ at the tip^ formed almost instantaneously when an avalanche comes to rest. The kinetic energy of the avalanche hardens the snow by compaction, sometimes also by pressure melting and regelation (3; 40).
Avalanche wind .
The rush of air in front of an avalanche. “It is the swift downrush of dry snow rather than the more deliberate advance of the ground avalanche that produces in front of the descending mass the most remarkable examples of the 'avalanche wind’ the force of which, at its worst, surpasses that of any tornado. The air dis– placed by the avalanche rushes not only straight forward but also on either side, uprooting trees and causing general destruction hundreds of yards beyond the area reached by the avalanche itself.” (53a).

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Baffin Bay Pack .
The drifting ice west of Greenland between Davis Strait and the southern limits of North Water. Some authorities apply the term Middle Pack to the entire area. Smith considers that the West Ice , which moves south along the Baffin coast, represents the backbone of the Baffin Bay Pack, while the Middle Pack is the outer fields subject to wider annual variations. The composition of the Baffin Bay Pack is bergs from the Greenland coast north of Disko and ocean ice one to several years old from the Arctic Sea or formed in Smith, Jones, and Lancaster sounds, as well as in Baffin Bay and around its shores (33; 44).
Balling .
Accumulation of lumps of snow under a ski, snowshoe, or other footgear, or attached to the hairs of a dog's paw (40; 47).
Ballycadders .
Salt-water ice formed along shore between the levels of high and low tide, thus both aground and fast to the shore. Term developed in Hudson Bay where in many places tides are fairly high, with the sea shoaling toward land so the tide flats are wide (12; 47). (See Ice foot .)
Banquette co^ô^tie^è^re [F].
See Ice foot.
Banquise [F].
See Pack .
Banquise co^ô^tie^è^ re [F].
See Fast ice .
Banquise i^í^mpe^ é^ne^é^trable [F].
See Close ice .
Banquise polaire [ ^F^ ].
See Polar pack .
Banshee .
See Cracking, Ice yowling .
Barber (Berber) .
A gale of wind with damp snow or sleet and spray that freezes upon every object, especially the beard and hair. Said to be called barber by wharfmen of New York. It is called barber (or berber)

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because the snow is so shar ^ p^ that, when driven by a gale, it nearly cuts the skin off the face. Also said to be used in Nova Scotia for vapor rising in cold weather from open water of rivers (53a). (See Frost smoke .)
Barchans (Snow barchans) .
Horseshoe-shaped or crescentic patches of snow (or sand), in contradistinction to ripples and long ridges. Bar– chans, which open downwind, do not join up to form long transverse structures; they are more common on extensive flat areas than in mountains. The word is of Russian origin and is applied to the action of wind on sand in central Asia deserts (40).
Barrage .
See Ice barrage .
Barrier or Barrie^è^re [F].
See Ice cliff, Shelf ice .
Barrier berg .
See Tabular iceberg .
Bay ( Ice bay ).
An indentation of the ice edge caused by winds and currents (55).
Bay ice ( Glace de baies [ ^ F^ ], Led bukht [R], Zalivayi led [R]).
This term should be discarded, for its precision has been lost [: ] through its being used for young ice, fast ice, level ice, winter ice, as well as for any ice formed in a bay, fjord, or gulf. In the Antarctic the term has been used at times for heavy land floes.
Belt ( Poias [R], Polosa lda [R]).
A strip of cakes, floes, or fields of ice of such extent that its lengthwise limits cannot be seen from the crow's-nest (47).
Bending .
The first behavior stage of ice under pressure. Considerable bend– ing is observed only with salt-water ice and only if it is thin (young) enough to be pliable (47). (See Hummocking, Rafting , Screwing, Tenting .)

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Berber .
See Barber .
Beregovoi pripai [R].
See Landfast ice .
Berg .
See Iceberg .
Bergschrund .
A deep crevasse at the head of a mountain glacier which separates the virtually motionless firm and underlying ice attached to the head wall from the firn field of the glacier on the down-valley side (14).
Bergy bit .
In current American usage, a small growler ; according to European usage, a large piece of glacier ice rising 8 to 16 feet above the surface of the sea (7; 45; 66). (See Calved ice .)
Bergy hole .
Area near southern end of Melville Bay that usually contains large numbers of icebergs (47).
Beset (Bloque^é^ [F], Clave^é^ [F]).
Beset is used of a vessel so closely surrounded by sea ice that control of her movements is lost (47). (See Nipping .)
Bight .
An indentation in shelf ice, fast ice, or a floe (57). (See Bay .)
Big Lead, The .
Name given by Peary to a belt of loose ice and open water which he believed to be fairly constant and to be found north of Ellesmere Island and Greenland between 84° and 85° N.; he observed it between 60° and 40° W. at never over three miles in width but believed it would be wider farther east, because of the greater difference in eastward speed of the ice north of the “lead” as compared with the ice south of it (47; 70).
Biofog ( Human and animal fog ).
Fog created at low temperatures by the moist warmth of people or animals, and by human activities such as cooking.

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Extreme possible density under natural outdoor conditions is probably that reported from the Pole of Cold in Siberia where a reindeer tethered at −90°F. was invisible from leeward at 10 feet. Villages, where cooking and similar activities are added to the steaming of people and beasts, may have only one margin visible to flyers unless they are looking almost vertically down through the biofog (47). (See Contrail .)
Birktok [E].
See Blizzard .
Bit .
A single piece of ice less than 2 feet in diameter (47). (See Brash , Glac^ç^on.)
Bityi led [R].
See Broken ice .
Black and white iceberg .
Iceberg having a dark portion containing sand and stones, and separated from the white portion by a definite clear– cut plane; dark portion water-worn into smoothly rounded surface (57).
Black frost .
See Frost, black .
Black ice .
Thin dark-appearing salt-water ice without snow covering (see ice rind ); an early stage in the xx development of young ice when the top of it is so wet with brine that, even in very cold weather, the salt melts any light snow as it falls. In a heavy snowfall, or with drifting snow, this ice will get covered up and then presents the greatest of hazards to men afoot or to airplanes seeking a safe landing. This term is also used to describe new ice on fresh water (39; 47; 66).
Blinchatyi led [R].
See Pancake ice .
Blink ( Otblesk [R]).
The reflection in a clouded sky from anything below

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that is light in color, like snow or ice, or a source of light, such as a camp fire, prairie fire, lighted city; the lighter por– tions of the sky map (47). (See Color sky, Glare .)
Blizzard ( Birktok [E], Chasse-neige [F], Purga [R]).
A strong wind (usually not very cold and with or without falling snow) before which the snow drifts so high and thick that it is difficult or impossible to tell whether the sky is clear or clouded. A true blizzard differs from equally strong or even stronger snow ^ -^ carrying local gales (gales produced or focused by topography) in being of larger extent and no doubt generally of cyclonic nature. Some authorities, among them Petterssen, feel the term blizzard should not be used except when one thinks there is or may be some snow falling (47). (See Buran, Burga, Drift, Snowstorm .)
Block .
A small piece of ice (47). (See Cake .)
Blocky iceberg .
An iceberg having a nearly horizontal surface and steep sides (47).
Bloque^é^ [F].
See Beset .
Blowhole ( Aklavik [E]).
A topographic configuration that funnels wind to create a local wind strong enough to carry snow into the air; an open water spot in desne pack where whales, especially beluga, gather because they cannot come up to blow elsewhere in the neigh– borhood (47; 62). (See Breathing hole .)
Bodeneis [G].
See Ground ice .
Boorga .
See Burga .
Boring ( Forage [F], Slewing ).
Forcing a vessel steadily through ice under power of engine or sail so as to progress by pushing adjacent floes apart (47). (See Ramming .)

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Botner [S].
See Cirque .
Bottom ice ( Deposited ice ).
Depth ice that has reached and clung to the bottom (47). (See Anchor ice .)
Bourguignons [F].
See Brash .
Brae [D].
See Glacier .
Brash or Brash ice ( Bourguignons [F], Debris ice, Glace brise^é^e [F], Melkobityi led [R], Mush, Razdroblennyi led [R], Sarrazins [F]).
Mixture of sludge with small fragments that are wreckage of other ice forms; also used, even when sludge is absent, for a hodgepodge of small ice fragments, say up to 6 feet in diameter, if they have a water– logged appearance. Sometimes called slob ice (47; 66).
Brash cakes ( Sludge cakes ).
Ice cakes formed by the refreezing of brash, or brash and sludge (47).
Brash floes ( Sludge floes ).
Floes formed by the freezing together of brash cakes or just by the freezing of brash (47).
Bre [N].
See Glacier.
Break-up ( Ledokhod [R]).
The time at which, and conditions under which, laymen consider that winter has definitely turned the corner into summer. The ice on rivers breaks and starts moving with the cur– rent; lakes are no longer crossable afoot; the frozen mud has become soft; and most of the snow is gone (47). (See the opposite term Freeze-up .)
Breathing hole .
A hole in sea ice for breathing purposes kept open through gnawing by a seal that lives beneath it in the water. The hole, anything from dime to half-dollar size, is usually covered more

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or less deeply by snow (except in warm weather) and the seal breathes air that filters through the snow (47).
Brine flowers .
The encrustation of salt upon the upper surface of young ice (so named in analogy to frost roses). Brine flowers are conspicuous only when the cold is intense and the ice a few inches thick; a fall of snow upon a brine-flower crust causes it to turn liquid, producing a slush layer between the snow and the ice (47.)
Brine slush .
Slush that cannot quite turn to ice because of high salt content; most commonly found between young ice and its fluffy cover of recent snow. At low temperatures a salt crust begins forming on top of young ice when it is 2 or more inches thick (before which the top side of the forming ice has been covered with liquid brine). This salt crust becomes drier to the feel both with thickening of the young ice and with a drop in tempera– ture; but upon the blanketing of the ice with a considerable fall of new snow, the salt crust melts and forms a layer of brine between the young ice and the snow. At around −50°F. air temperature, with 6 or 8 inches of new-fallen snow, there may be half an inch or more of liquid or creamy slush separating the dry snow above from 6 and even 10 inches of forming ice (47). (See Ice flowers, Salt crust .)
Broken belt .
The outer fringe of polar ice, consisting of scattered floes and cakes; it may be many miles broad (47).

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Broken ice ( Bityl led [R]).
Ice consisting of scattered cakes and floes (47). (See Brash .)
Bucking .
See Ramming .
Bulguniakh [R].
Usually used synonymously with hydrolaccolith, but sometimes just any medium-sized mound (31).
Buran [R].
A violent northeast snow-carrying storm of the central or south– central plains of the Soviet Union; the equivalent of the purga of the northern Soviet plains and the blizzard of the North Amer– ican prairies (53a).
Burga ( Boorga ).
This is a Russian loan word in the Eskimo-White jargon of western Alaska — a mispronunciation of the Russian purga and signifying a blizzard (53a).

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Cake .
A relatively flat piece of ice, smaller than a floe (47). (See Bergy bit, Bit, Glac^ç^on, Growler.)
Calf .
A piece of ice broken off from the front of a glacier or barrier; sometimes used of a piece breaking off from large berg (47).
Calf ice or Calved ice .
A low-lying piece of glacier ice, less than 16 feet above the surface of the sea (47). (See Bergy bit, Growler .)
Calving ( Shchenki [R], Vela^â^ge [F]).
The breaking away of a mass of ice from a parent berg, glacier, or barrier (47).
Candle ice (Needle ice, Penknife ice).
Long crystals formed in freshwater ice, or in salt ice that has become fresh. These are vertical (at right angles to the surface of the water). Their tips are sharp and will cut shoe leather and the pads of dogs’ feet. Markham implies that this formation was first described in England in 1827 by Parry who called it “penknife ice.” Apparently candling does not take place as long as snow shields the ice from the direct sun. When the candling extends all the way through the ice, to the water below, it is easy to drive a slender though blunt rod all the way through. Chunks of river ice thrown up on a bank during break-up will candle rapidly in direct sunlight and will then collapse at a light blow, as from a cane, into a heap of candles (27; 47).
Canopying .
Interlocking of plumes and flakes of snow (40).
Capillary fringe .
The zone immediately above the water table in which water is held above the groundwater level by capillarity (31).
Capillary interstices .
Openings small enough to produce appreciable capillary rise (31).

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Capillary water .
Water that is retained in the capillary interstices of the [: ] ground and is capable of movement through capillary action. It may remain unfrozen at the lowest permafrost temperatures. Also water retained by capillary action in wet snow and wet ice (3; 31).
Cat ice ( Shell ice ).
Thin ice from under which the water has receded (63).
Cave-in lake ( Kettle lake, Kettle-hole lake ).
A lake formed in a caved-in depression produced by the thawing of ground ice (31).
Ceinture des glace [F].
See Ice foot .
Champ de glace [F].
See Ice field .
Channel .
See Lead .
Chasse-neige [F].
See Blizzard .
Chattermarks .
Scars made in series by vibratory glacial chipping. They were named in analogy with a machinist’s chattermark, which results when a tool, not firmly held, plows across a piece of metal. They are not friction cracks, for they possess no fracture (15).
Chinese walls .
See Ice cliff .
Chistaia voda [R].
See Open water .
Ciel d’eau [F].
See Water sky .
Cirque ( Botner [S], Cwm [W], Kar [G]).
A rock amphitheater with steeply rising walls formed by headward glacial erosion. It may or may not contain a glacier (14; 30; 57). (See Cirque glacier .)
Cirque glacier .
A glacier that occupies a cirque (14).
Clart e ^ é^ des glaces [F].
See Iceblink .
Clav e ^ é^ [F].
See Beset .
Clearing ( Progalina [R]).
A roundish opening in the ice with a maximum width of a few hundred yards. A larger opening may be called a big clearing (47). (See Hole, Polynia .)

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Climatic snow line .
The level above which snow accumulates indefinitely on flat surfaces fully exposed to sun and wind. As such surfaces are absent in most mountain regions, the climatic snow line is little more than a theoretical concept, while the regional snow line is an observable thing (28).
Closed system .
A condition of freezing of the ground under confined condi– tions where no additional supply of groundwater is available (31; 62).
Close ice or Close pack ( Banquise imp e ^ é^ n e ^ é^ trable [F], Gustoi led [R], Splochennyi led [R].
Ice so closely packed that it covers 70 to 90% of the sea surface; navigation is difficult or impossible (47).
Cloud map .
See Sky map .
Coastal hummock or Coastal pressure ridge ( Pribrezhnyi toros [R]).
Hummock or ridge formed when floating ice is thrust against the edge of land ice, the slabs of ice piling up onto each other in varied positions (6; 47).
Coastal ice ( Glace c o ^ ô^ ti e ^ è^ re [F]).
All ice formations existing between land and sea on the coast, regardless of origin (57). (See Fast ice , Glacier tongue, Ice foot, Ledianoi zabereg, Shelf ice .)
Coast ice .
See Fast ice .
Col .
A col is formed where two cirques enlarging toward each other cut through the ridge that separates them, producing a sharp-edged gap with a smoothly curved vertical profile. Many alpine passes have this origin (15).
Cold content .
The amount of heat, in calories, which is necessary to raise the temperature of a snow column of 1-sq.cm. section to 0°C. without

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melting the snow. This amount depends on the thickness and density of the snow column, and the temperatures within the column (3; 32).
Cold poles .
See Poles of cold .
Collar ice .
See Ice foot .
Color sky or Colored sky .
Reflection in clouds of colored portions of the landscape beneath them, as pink or orange from pink snow, yellow or straw color ^ from^ grass showing through the snow on a winter prairie (47). (See Sky map .)
Column .
A snow crystal in the form of a short, hexagonal prism with either plane, pyramidal, or truncated ends. (Length/diameter less than 5.) (48)
Columnar frost .
Extrusions of ice column ^ s^ that grow from swampy ground, formed by the freezing of water emerging from claylike soil. Growth is at the interface between ice and land (39).
Combined water .
Water of solid solution and water of hydration that does not freeze (3; 31).
Compacted snow .
Naturally compacted snow is produced by action of blizzards or other strong winds; artificially compacted snow results from pressure or pounding applied to new or pulverized snow, as by rubbing soft snow gently into the crevices of a snowhouse, pressing soft snow down by tread of men or animals, or intentionally stamping it down with feet or instruments, or by action of skis and sledge runners. Compacting also results from reworking snow, harrow fashion, once or oftener. Compacted snow hardens gradually afterward, the

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time element in the process reminding of the hardening of cement into concrete, hence snow concrete or snowcrete (33; 47; 51a).
Compact ice ( Glace compacte [F], Sploshnoi led [R]).
Continuous, although broken, drift ice with few indications of open water to be seen from a vantage point, such as the masthead (47).
Concrete .
See Icecrete, Snowcrete .
Concussion crack .
See Shock crack .
Condensation .
Process by which vapor becomes a liquid or a solid, for instance, the change of liquid water into dew or rime (53a).
Condensation nucleus .
A particle upon which condensation of water vapor begins in the free atmosphere (53a).
Condensation trail .
See Contrail .
Confetti ice .
See Spicule fog .
Confluent ice .
Ice sheets formed by the coalescence of ice tongues from several glaciers (47). (See Piedmont glacier .)
Congelating stress .
See Adfreezing strength .
Congelifraction .
F or ^ ro^ st splitting or f or ^ ro^ st riving (9).
Congeliturbation .
Frost action including frost heaving and differential and mass movements; includes solifluction, sludging, etc. (9).
Cong e ^ è^ re [F].
See Snowdrift .
Conglomerated pack .
High hummocky floes interspersed with icebergs; not navigable unless by powerful icebreakers (47).
Conglomeratic ice ( Ice conglomerate ).
When one floe grinds along another, the irregular edges of the floes are so ground that the motion takes place along a nearly straight line. The blocks of ice are

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gradually crushed into small fragments, so that a mixture of boulders of ice in a groundmass of slush is formed along the line separating the moving and stationary ice. When the floes sepa– rate, the ice conglomerate is often left with a vertical wall to mark the former plane of motion. This kind of ice, especially when found as a component of the East Ice, is sometimes in error referred to as paleocrystic ice (26; 43; 44; 45; 47).
Consolidated pack .
The heaviest form of pack, containing much pressure ice, and appearing entirely devoid of water spaces when seen from a vantage, such as a shore observation spot or a crow’s-nest (47).
Constant soil congelation .
See Permafrost .
Continental glacier .
Glacier covering very large areas, such as Greenland and the Antarctic (1; 15). (See Ice sheet, Inland ice .)
Contrail .
A trail of fog or mist left behind in cold weather by a moving person, running beast, flying bird, or machine, such as motorcar or airplane. In all but the machines, this mist is produced by the moisture from breathing, insensible perspiration, and sweating; with machines some of the fog no doubt is from the combustion processes, but it is considered that when air is supersaturated with respect to ice, crystals of it are generated in vortices produced by propeller tips and the leading edges of airplane wings. (However, if that be so, bullets should produce contrails, which does not appear to have been reported.) (39; 47) (See Biofog .)
Cooking snow .
See Water snow .
Cornice .
Snow or ice overhanging the lee slope of rocks or ice cliffs; the

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formation is produced primarily by wind but plastic deformation may also be a factor (14; 40; 64; 65).
Cornice face .
The underside of the overhanging portion of a cornice (64).
Cornice roof .
The snow surface between the cornice root and the cornice face. In rounded cornices the roof is continued round as far as the farthest overhanging point of the cornice at which point the face commences (40).
Cornice root .
The union between the snow deposit forming a cornice and the snow of the ridge or mountainside on which it stands (40).
Cornice scarp .
The steep snow slope (usually of about 52-1/2*) under the face of a snow cornice (40).
Corn snow .
Granular form of snow which develops by cycles of successive freezing and thawing (39). (See Spring snow, Water snow .)
Corrie .
A very small cirque which is isolated on the side of a canyon or hill and is not directly t ir ^ ri^ butary to a valley (42).
Crack ( Treshchina [R]).
A narrow fissure in ice, hard snowbank, or frozen earth; in floating sea ice it usually results from the action of winds or currents, on lakes or land usually from a drop in tempera– ture. Ordinarily sledge travelers at sea speak of a crack if a man can jump over it but of a lead if he cannot jump across. Sailors sometimes use crack to denote a lead too narrow for a ship’s passage. Among others, there are shock, shear, pressure, temperature, and tidal cracks (47; 57). (See Promoina .)
Cracking .
Occurs in frozen land or in ice that is shrinking because of a drop in temperature. The resulting noise is no doubt really loud at

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times in sea ice, but is there frequently obscured by other noises; so the cracking is usually reported only from lakes, rivers, or land. From land and rivers the noise is usually described as comparable to a pistol shot, for the crack is relatively short and the noises from all parts of each come to the listening ear nearly simultaneously. But when the ice of a wide lake is involved, the split may be sev– eral or many miles in length, the sounds from different distances arriving at different times, producing what has been called ice banshee or ice yowling (47).
Creaking .
The noise made by sledges, especially if metal-shod and heavily loaded, as they are dragged over snow. Other things being equal, the creaking is louder the colder the day; the experienced sledger can guess tempera ^ t^ ure roughly by the loudness and other traits of the creaking (47).
Cream ice ( Ice-cream ice ).
Young ice, usually less than 3 inches thick, which contains so many honeycomb-like cells filled with unfrozen brine that a piece of it splashes or flattens like ice cream if dropped on a hard surface (47).
Creeping snow .
Snow “creeps,” slides slowly downhill, when it lies on a steep slope and has become partly befirned. The tensile stresses caused by creeping are among the main causes of avalanches (3; 40).
Crevasse .
A fissure or [: ] ^ rift^ in glaciers, shelf ice, or other land-ice forma– tions (47).
Crevasse hoar .
Sublimed crystals found in crevasses or in other hollows or crevices below the snow surface (40).
Crimson snow .
See Pink snow .

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Cristaux de glace [F].
See Ice crystals .
Critical moisture content .
Maximum amount of interstitial water which, when converted into ice, will fill all the available pore space of the ground (31).
Crusts, breakable and unbreakable .
To a skier, a crust is a layer of hard snow developed above a softer layer. Breakable crust is any kind of crust which breaks under weight of a laden ski. Although this will vary according to several factors, among them the weight of the skier and his skill, nevertheless it gives an idea of the condition of the snow. Unbreakable crusts are those which support a skier. Crusts are occasionally referred to as bearing or non– bearing in reference to the man on foot (40). (See Glitter .)
Cryoconite holes .
See Dust holes .
Cryology .
That subdivision of hydrology which relates to snow and ice (49).
Cryopedology .
The science of intensive frost action and permanently frozen ground, including studies of the processes and their occurrence and also the engineering devices which may be invented to avoid or overcome difficulties induced by them [: ] .
Cryoplanation .
Land reduction by the processes of intensive frost action, i.e., congeliturbation including solifluction and accompanying processes of translation of congelifracts. Includes the work of rivers and streams in transporting materials delivered by the above processes (9).
Crystal, irregular .
A snow crystal which has grown in random directions. It may have the appearance of a combination of microscopic crystals or its structure may be concealed by a coating of rime which gives

EA-I. Glossary

it an opaque appearance. Nakaya has used the term “amorphous snow,” and Schaefer, the term “asymmetrical c yr ^ ry^ stal” to describe this form of snow (48).
Crystal fog .
See Spicule fog .
Crystocrene .
Surface masses of ice formed each winter by the overflow of springs. In Alaska and the Yukon such ice is often called a glacier (31; 47). (See Aufeis, Icing .)
Crystosphene .
Mass or sheet of ice developed by a wedging growth between beds of other material; a form of ground ice (31).
Cul-de-sac .
An area of disturbed floating sea ice from which there is no egress for a vessel (57).
Cwm [W].
See Cirque .
Cygne [F].
Icebergs that have been worn thin and whose long necks resemble the cygne (cygn a ^ e^ t) or swan (61).

EA-I. Glossary

Dauerfrostboden [G].
See Permafrost .
Dead glacier .
See Stagnant glacier .
Debacle .
The spring break-up of ice in rivers (47). (See Ice Jam .)
Debris ice .
See Brash .
Deep-seated swelling .
Swelling of ground caused by the freezing of freely percolating groundwater (31).
Degradation of permafrost .
Disappearance of the permafrost due to natural or artificial causes (31).
Dendrite, spatial .
A feathery type of snow crystal having branches which are not in one plane. It may have a stellar base on which secondary branches which are not in the base plane have formed, or it may have branches radiating from its center (48).
Depergelation .
The act or process of thawing permanently frozen ground (9).
Deposited ice .
See Bottom ice .
Depth hoar .
Sublimed crystals, usually of cupped shape, found among the snow or forming layers inside or at the base of the snow cover. Depth hoar is a snow type (3; 40).
Depth ice .
Small particles of ice formed below the surface of the sea when it is both sufficiently chilled and sufficiently churned up by wave action. Some of the particles may go far enough down to touch bottom, where they adhere and become bottom ice. In other cases, the particles freeze together as they touch each other, become thus enlarged, and finally rise to the surface (68). (See Anchor ice .)
Depth of seasonal change .
See Level of zero annual amplitude .
Diamond dust .
A minute, simple, crystalline form of sublimed water vapor that falls out of a clear sky (40).

EA-I. Glossary

Dirty ice .
Drifting sea ice which was formed at or near a shore and which has broken up to carry abroad with it enough wind-deposited or landslide-deposited sand or earth so that from a distance the floes look dark. Sometimes these floes, particularly if hummocky, are mistaken from a distance for partly snow-covered land (47). (See Landslide debris .)
Dissipation, area of .
See Ablation, area of .
Distributary glacier .
An ice stream which diverges laterally from a main trunk glacier and forms a separate terminus (14).
Disturbed ice .
Any land ice which is broken by pressure into a chaotic pat– tern of elevations and depressions (47).
Drain hole .
Hole through which the (usually fresh) thaw water on top of sea ice flows down to join the sea beneath. These holes speed up the thawing and the break-up of the ice, for they enlarge rapidly. The drainage ^ a^ pertures may have been seal breathing holes originally, or they may have caused by dark objects (such as fox or bear excrement, dead fish, pieces of seaweed) that turn sunlight into heat when the rays strike them, making pits, some of which finally perforate the ice and become drainage vents (46). (See Breathing hole, Dust hole .)
Drift .
Wind-driven snow, both falling and fallen, in motion along the surface, sometimes rising to heights of 100 feet or more; snow lodged in the vicinity of surface irregularities under the influence of the wind.

EA-I. Glossary

Also the motion of sea ice or vessels resulting from ocean currents (3; 47). (See Blizzard, Snowstorm .)
Drift ice ( Glaces de d e ^ é^ rive [F], Plavun [R], Redkii led [R]).
The Inter– national Ice Patrol uses this term to describe all sea ice that is not fast, regardless of the per cent of cover. Many writers use it to mean a very open pack where water predominates over ice. The floes are usually smaller than in close or open pack, with much rotten ice and brash; vessels usually can pass through it without altering course or speed. Known also as sailing ice . Zubov defines drift ice as all sea ice that intervenes, in space, between the landfast or shore ice and the pack; he estimates this to cover 10 to 15% of total Arctic Sea area in late winter, as com– pared with 15 or 20% for shore ice and about 70% for pack ice. Drift ice is in constant movement, being partly destroyed during summer, partly surviving and freezing into next winter’s ice. It is thought of as not being a permanent component of the pack. Drift ice is usually penetrable by ships in summer; pack ice (Soviet style) is not (45; 47; 66; 68; 69).
Drivis [N].
See Pack .
Dry permafrost .
Permanently frozen ground with temperature below 0°C. but containing no ice (31).
Duff .
The vegetable matter which covers the ground in the forest, as leaves, twigs, dead logs, etc., and is influential in preserving permafrost (31). (See Muck .)
Dust holes ( Cryoconite holes ).
Small slender pits or perforations near the

EA-I. Glossary

edges of glaciers or in sea ice that is or has been near land. These are produced when heat is generated by sunlight striking dark particles that rest on the whiter ice, whereupon the heated particles, up to pebble size, sink down into the ice. The reverse effect may be produced if large pebbles are involved, for they act as insulators (47; 53a). (See Mushroom pillars .)
Dyra [R].
See Hole .

EA-I. Glossary

Earth mound .
See Frost mound .
East Ice .
This ice comes drifting south from the Arctic Sea through the gap between Greenland and Spitsbergen, moves along the East Greenland coast, around Cape Farewell, and up the southern west coast. It is composed of paleocrystic and other floes which get broken into smaller sizes as they crowd through the Greenland-Spitsbergen gap, south of which they are joined by icebergs from Greenland glaciers, as well as by locally formed sea ice. It is important to note, however, that to Norwegians, East Ice is the ice in Barents Sea, and West Ice, the ice off eastern Greenland (47; 51).
Eau de neige [F].
See Snow-water pool .
Eaux libres [F].
See Open water .
Eisbank [G].
See Fast ice .
Eisberg [G].
See Iceberg .
Eiseblink [G].
See Iceblink .
Eisboden [G].
See Frozen ground .
Eisbrei [G].
See Ice fat .
Eisfeld [G].
See Ice field .
Eis im Boden [G].
See Ground ice .
Eiskristallen [G].
See Ice crystals .
Eisrinde [G].
See Ice rind .
Embacle .
A heaping up of ice following a renewed freezing (6).
Ever-frozen soil .
See Permafrost .
Expanded foot glacier .
Glacier with an expanded terminal section outside the confining walls of a valley (14). (See Foot glacier .)

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Fallen snow .
Snow after it has reached the ground; all snow between the stages of the snowflake on one side and firn and glacier ice on the other (40). (See Apun .)
Fann [D].
See Fonn, Snowdrift .
Fast ice ( Banquise c o ^ ô^ tiere [F], Coast ice, Eisbank [G], Festeis [G], Glace ferm e ^ é^ e [F], Glace fixe [F], Küsteneis [G], Landfast ice, Land floe, Pripai [R], Shore ice, Zabereg [R]).
Stretches of unbroken sea ice attached on one or more sides to land or to stranded hummocks or bergs. It usually breaks up before the end of summer. When thick ice of this nature drifts away it forms land floes (66; 67). (See Ledianoi zabereg, Running ice .)
Festeis [G].
See Fast ice .
Fibrous ice .
See Acicular ice .
Field .
See Ice field .
Field ice .
Formerly synonymous with consolidated pack. Now used by Inter– national Ice Patrol and ma^n^y others for sea ice sighted on Grand Banks and in other southerly regions; when extent is considered limited the reference is to patches of field ice (43; 66).
Film crust .
A layer of very thin, clear ice found on the top of wet snow, but separated from it by an air space and supported by the high points of the irregular snow surface. It is formed by sublimation of vapor rising from the wet snow by diffusion. It forms only in calm, clear weather, with high temperature contrasts between night and day. Sometimes the film protects the snow below from thawing (3; 40).

EA-I. Glossary

Fine aggregate ice .
Ice formed by freezing of stirred water (31).
Fire hole .
A hole kept open through the sea, lake, or river ice so that water may be available in case of fire (4).
Firn ( Firn snow, N e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ ).
Snow, compacted by thermal variations, in transition from soft snow to glacier ice; it is said to be befirned when its density reaches about 0.4. Also the accumulation area of a glacier. Formerly the terms n e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ and firn were interchangeable but Seligman suggests using firn to indicate snow particles in the befirned con– dition and n e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ to indicate the moving mass of firn snow situated in the area of accumulation of a glacier. However, Sharp suggests firn field as better than the latter usage. Firn derives from Middle High German virne meaning old, last year’s (10; 40; 42; 64).
Firn cement .
Ice originating from a film of thaw water surrounding grains of new firn snow which cements them firmly together (40).
Firn field ( N e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ field, N e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ slope ).
Ahlmann describes this as an immovable mass of firn formed by the recrystallization of solid precipita– tion, which consequently does not include the firn areas of the glaciers. [: ] Sharp and others, however, define it as a perennial snow field or slope of firn snow (according to its gradient), above the firn or n e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ (3; 40).
Firnification .
The process of metamorphism of new snow to firn (3; 40).
Firn line or limit ( N e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ line ).
The highest level to which the fresh snow cover on a glacier’s surface retreats during the melting season. Glen suggests that there are two firn lines: climatological and temporary. The first represents that altitude at which previous

EA-I. Glossary

climatological conditions have balanced accumulation against ablation and at which the firn cover of the accumulation area is found to begin. The second represents that altitude at which any one year’s accumulation and ablation may balance (16; 28).
Firn snow .
See Firn .
Firn snow, advanced .
Snow (the alpine Firnschnee ) of a more solid structure than new firn snow and therefore of greater de sn ^ ns^ ity. Advanced firn snow is generally found in the areas of accumulation of glaciers (40).
Firn snow, dry granular .
Firn snow so situated below the surface that it is impossible for it to be subjected to melting, the crystals lying loose and friable, rather resembling rice grains. It is called Kornschnee in the Alps (40).
Firn snow, new .
This is the verfirnter Schnee of alpine nomenclature. It lies with its grains fairly loose; but as it grows old the grains become more and more firmly held together by a “cement” of ice originating from a film of thaw water surrounding them (40).
Fissure polygons ( Mud polygon ).
Polygonal areas of ground separated from each other by grooves or fissures. Includes “tundra” polygons and mudflat polygons (30).
Fjord ice ( Glace de fjords [F]).
Level ice originating in fjords (66).
Flacheis [G].
See Level ice .
Flaques d’eau c o ^ ô^ ti e ^ è^ res [F].
See Offshore water .
Flaw .
Term used by Yankee shore whalers in two senses: (1) the outer edge of the landfast ice; (2) the shore lead, just outside the fast ice ,

EA-I. Glossary

along which whales migrate (especially on the northwest coast of Alaska, between Point Hope and Point Barrow) (47).
Floe ( Obloaki polei [R]).
Mobile sea ice, the limits of which are within sight; larger than pancake but smaller than field. One size classification (Maurstad’s) is: small floe if less than 0.1 mile in diameter; floe or medium floe if from 0.1 to 0.5 mile; big floe if from 0.5 mite almost to field size. For thickness, floes are usually called: light if less than 2 feet; medium from 2 to 6 feet; heavy above that thickness. Floes from 7 to 12 feet thick, if formed by direct freezing, are from one to several years old; but great thickness may be acquired by younger floes through hummocking, rafting, or the conversion of snow into ice by way of an intermediary slush stage (47; 57; 66).
Floe belt .
The area inside the broken belt (47).
Floeberg ( Nesiak [R]).
A massive piece of sea ice or hummock (a berg in appearance but a floe in origin) (66).
Floe ice .
Extensive area of sea covered with floes of various sizes; differs from a field in that, from the masthead, open water patches can be seen here and there (47).
Flood or Flooding .
A sheet of water on top of river ice; the expression covers both the process and the end product. The cause of flood– ing is usually that the stream freezes to the bottom at a shallow place or jams with frazil ice ; the pressure of the water thus dammed back finally causes a break in the ice somewhere upstream and the river flows on top of its own ice. The flood may extend

EA-I. Glossary

miles underneath deep snow without enough water soaking up into it to snow. Under the snow blanket the water may remain unfrozen for several days, even in the coldest weather; if the water soaks all the way up through the snow, freezing proceeds rapidly (47).
Flood ice .
See Aufeis .
Flottage [F].
See Rafting .
Flower ice .
See Ice flowers .
Fluff .
See New snow .
Foam crust .
A snow crust which appears as small, overlapping waves, [: ] ^ like^ sea foam. First described by Lunn, it is formed by sun evaporation similar to that which occurs in the formation of perforated crust . Plowshares are an intensified from of foam crust (40).
Foam volcano .
A structure consisting of frozen foam produced when foam is extruded from holes in an ice-locked stream, due to water-created air pressure. The volcano generally consists of a hollow cone or cylinder which, under special conditions, has been known to reach a height of 13 feet and a diameter of 15 inches. They are usually conical until about 15 inches high, after which they become cylin– drical. Foam volcanoes generally occur on streams having water– falls, and only when the water contains surface-active materials (39).
Fog, advection, bio -, ground, ice, spicule, supercooled .
^ See^ Advection fog , Biofog, etc.
Fog deposit .
A mixture of fallen snowflakes and frozen fog droplets; has been called rime and Anraum (40).

EA-I. Glossary

Fonn [D and N].
Eternal snow (seemingly from Old Norse Fönn which means deep snow, large snowdrift). In some Norwegian proper names it is used to denote glacier, as Folgefonnen, etc. (47; 51).
Foot glacier .
The term “foot” is applied to any single glacier whose terminal portion expands in lobate form over level or gently sloping terrain (64).
Forage [F].
See Boring .
Fossil ice .
See Ground ice .
Frazil or Frazil ice .
Fine, disk-shaped, free-floating ice particles which are formed in waters too turbulent to permit the formation of an ice sheet, and may gather on the surface or on underwater structures. It is the ice formation that causes trouble at the intake of hydro– electric plants and also at times produces underwater dams in rivers, which may lead to river flooding. This is a French-Canadian term derived from the French frazil meaning cinders. Frazil crystals apparently were taken to resemble the cinders from a forge (6; 39; 47; 51a).
Free water .
In snow, the term means liquid water. In permafrostology, it is interstitial gravity water wh^i^ch is usually considered to freeze at normal temperature, 0°C.; according to Bouyoucos it freezes first at the supercooling of −1.5°C. (3; 31).
Freeze .
The condition and the result when the whole air mass over a wide area remains below the thaw point long enough to be the character– istic feature of the weather. A freeze is longer and more severe than a black frost but not long or severe enough to be the freeze-up (53a).

EA-I. Glossary

Freeze-up ( Ledostav [R]).
The time at which, and conditions under which, laymen consider that winter has set in. The farmer can no longer plow his field, the canoeist is unable to paddle along the river, most of even the hardier vegetables are frost-blighted. To the arctic traveler, it is the time when the hardened mud no longer sticks to his boots, when he can cross river and lake by ice, and when the use of the sledge begins (47). (See the opposite term Break-up .)
Freezing point .
See Melting point .
Freezing rain .
A rain that partly freezes on striking objects and forms on them a smooth coating of ice (53a). (See Ice storm .)
Fresh ice .
Has been employed to describe newly formed ice of different types (see young ice ). This term should not be used because it conflicts with other definitions of fresh ice, among them (1) ice that has always been fresh (salt-free), and (2) ice that was salty but is now fresh (47).
Friction crack .
A glacially made crescentic marking having a distinct fracture. It is so named because all such cracks are believed to be made by local increase in friction between ice and rock (18).
Frost .
A light, feathery deposit of ice through condensation of water vapor, directly in the crystalline form, on objects whose temperature is below freezing, corresponding to dew (53a). (See Hoarfrost .)
Frost, black .
Black frost or hard frost refers to a conditions prevailing in late autumn when both air and terrestrial objects have tempe ^ r^ atures below freezing. Vegetation is blackened, but hoarfrost does not form.

EA-I. Glossary

This term is seldom used in higher latitudes after winter has set in (53a).
Frost belt ( Frost dam ).
A narrow stratum of frozen ground which forms as obstruction to percolating shallow groundwater. It is induced by the removal of a strip of natural insulation, or by the con– struction of ditch, which causes early and rapid freezing of surficial ground. Also a locality, generally lowland valley, particularly subject to early frosts (23; 31; 39).
Frost blister ( Gravel mound, Grave mound, Soil blister ).
A mound or an upwarp of surficial ground caused chiefly by the hydrostatic pressure of groundwater (31).
Frost boil .
Accumulation of excess water usually at a place of accelerated spring thawing of ground ice. It commonly weakens the surface and may break through, causing a quagmire (31).
Frost crack .
Cracking of the ground because of frost. This expression may refer either to the gunshot-like noise heard when the earth cracks because of frost contraction or to the resulting crack or crevice in the ground. Also a term used by dendrologists to describe the cracks formed in tree trunks by frost action (39; 47).
Frost cracking .
See Cracking, Ice yowling .
Frost crystals .
Ice crystals which form over a normal firn or new snow with flat surfaces that give a special sparkle when the sun strikes them. Leffingwell uses the expression for deposits of ice crystals on the walls of cavities in frozen ground (26; 47).
Frost dam .
See Frost belt .

EA-I. Glossary

Frost flakes .
See Spicule fog .
Frost flowers .
See Frost roses .
Frost fog .
See Frost smoke .
Frostgraupeln [G].
See Soft hail .
Frost heaving ( Heaving ).
An upward warping (upwarp) of the ground due to a frost-produced swelling of materials farther down (31).
Frost line .
The maximum depth to wh^i^ch winter freezing penetrates where permafrost is not involved; it may be given for a particular winter, for the average of several winters, or for the greatest depth ever reached (53a).
Frost mound ( Agdlissartoq [E], Earth mound, Ground-ice mou^n^d, Ice mound, Pals [Fi], Peat mound, Pingorssarajuk [E], Suffosion complex, Suffosion convex, Suffosion knob ).
An upwarp of ground produced by various forces acting individually or in combination. These causative forces are usually due to freezing, groundwater pressure, and crystallization (49). The Eskimo words, as given above, are open to question as to grammatical form, spelling, and meaning, but are used here because they got into the literature. (See Frost blister , Hydrolaccolith, Pingok .)
Frost ribbon .
See Ice fringe .
Frost roses ( Frost flowers ).
The flower- or fernlike tracery of ice crystals formed in cold weather on the inside of a window in a warmed room, or under similar conditions elsewhere (47). (See Brine flowers .)
Frost smoke ( Frost fog, Fum e ^ é^ e congel e ^ é^ e [F], Sea smoke, Water smoke ).
The fog, cloud, or mist that forms at low temperatures over water areas, young ice, or damp ground (47). (See Barber, Biofog .)

EA-I. Glossary

Frost table .
A more or less irregular surface that represents the penetra– tion of spring and summer thawing of^ ^the seasonal frozen ground ( active layer ). It is not to be confused with permafrost table (31).
Frozen ground ( Eisboden [G], Taele [S], Tjäle [S]).
Ground that has a tempera– ture of 0°C. or lower, and generally contains a variable amount of water in the form of ice (31). (See Active layer, Permafrost .)
Frozen lakes .
This expression is often used to mean small, necessarily shallow, lakes that have been formed on large floes or fields of sea ice, most often paleocrystic ice, or upon a glacier or icecap, and which freeze to the bottom soon after summer is over (47).
Fum e ^ é^ e congel e ^ é^ e [F].
See Frost smoke .
Funneling .
An acceleration of the wind stream which occurs when a natural or artificial obstruction diverts the wind stream, causing an upward spiral eddy. The eddy carries snow back into the main air stream and removes it from the base of the obstruction, leaving a curved depression in the snow (40).

EA-I. Glossary

Gefrornis [G].
See Permafrost .
Gel e ^ é^ e blanche [F].
See Hoar .
Giant floe .
See Ice field .
Givre [F].
See Rime .
Glace bris e ^ é^ e [F].
See Brash .
Glace compacte [F].
See Compact ice .
Glace c o ^ ô^ ti e ^ è^ re [F].
See Coastal ice .
Glace de baies [F].
See Bay ice .
Glace de fjords [F].
See Fjord ice .
Glace de socle [F].
See Shelf ice, Tabular iceberg.
Glace e ^ é^ paisae [F].
See Heavy ice .
Glace ferm e ^ é^ e [F].
See Fast ice .
Glace fixe [F].
See Fast ice .
Glace morc ^ e^ l e ^ é^ e [F].
See Slob .
Glace navigable [F].
See Sailing ice .
Glace p e ^ é^ n e ^ é^ trable [F].
See Open ice .
Glace plate [F].
See Level ice .
Glace pourrie [F].
See Rotten ice .
Glaces anciennes [F].
See Paleocrystic ice .
Glaces de d e ^ é^ rive [F].
See Drift ice .
Glace stri e ^ é^ e [F].
See Slot ice .
Glacial anticyclone .
The term is intended to cover the system of outward blowing winds which is considered to be at all times above and around the continental glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica. Of variable intensity, these winds at times attain velocities of 150

EA-I. Glossary

miles per hour. They cause a downdraft from the stratosphere within central regions of the glaciers and inblowing winds at stratosphere levels. The aeolian deposits which surround the continental glaciers are considered by W. H. Hobbs to prove that they were likewise covered by glacial anticyclones (19a).
Glacial geology .
The study of existing glaciers with their snow fields and areas of alimentation by all processes; also the study of the extent of and topography produced by glacial erosion and glacial deposition both in the Pleistocene and earlier glacial periods whose deposits and erosional forms are preserved in solid rock now buried beneath the earth surface. Also the study of icebergs (29a).
Glaciation .
The condition of being covered by an xxxx ^ ice^ sheet or by glaciers; the erosive action exercised by land ice upon the land over which it flows. Also a meteorological term used to describe the shift in a cloud from supercooled water to ice crystals (39; 67).
Glaciation on manteaux [F].
See Highland glacier .
Glacier ( Brae [D], Bre [N], Fonn [D], Gletscher [D and G], Jökull [I], Sermik [E]).
A body of ice (usually with some firn) formed by metamorphism of snow, lying wholly or largely on land, and showing evidence of present or former flow (3; 15).
Glacier, cirque, continental, distributory, expended foot, foot, hanging , highland, highpolar, intermontane, outlet, piedmont, polar, re- generated, regimen of, stagnant, subpolar, temperate, through , tidal, transection, tributary, trunk, valley, wall-sided .
See Cirque glacier, Continental glacier, etc.

EA-I. Glossary

Glacier advance .
The term is used to describe the behavior of a glacier whose terminus is moving forward in a down-valley direction or thickening, as distinct from a terminus which is stationary or receding. It does not refer to the actual englacial flow of ice which, except in a stagnant glacier, continues regardless of the behavior of the terminus (14).
Glacier behavior .
Refers to the activity of a glacier or feature of a glacier, no matter whether this denotes change or no change in such aspects as length, volume, appearance, rate of movement, or in the relation– ship between the areas of accumulation and dissipation (14).
Glacier cap .
According to Ahlmann, the second-largest glacier type, judged by area, not as larger as inland ice, such as Vatnajökull in Iceland and Northeast Land, Svalbard (1; 42).
Glacieret .
A small glacier on a mountain slope on in a cirque; never as large as valley glacier (14).
Glacier ice .
A metamorphic rock derived from firn. As firn becomes denser (pressure and recrystallization) it becomes less permeable. At a density of approximately 0.8, the apparent porosity approaches zero and firn becomes ice by definition (3; 15).
Glacier in equilibrium ( Stationary glacier, Stationärer gletscher [G]).
A glacier in equilibrium with its environment ( ablation = accumulation ). It is stationary in the sense that it neither advances nor recedes (3).
Glacierization .
The inundation of land by ice. Flint prefers the term “glacier– covered” (15; 67).

EA-I. Glossary

Glacier mice ( Jökla-m s [I]).
Small stones reported from Iceland as found on glacier surfaces so far from nunataks that they must have been separated from parent land through a long span of years, yet they are so covered with fluffy and spiney moss, even on their undersides, that in [: ] photographs they remind of curled-up porcupines, the small ones reminding of mice (13a).
Glacier mill .
See Moulin .
Glacier recession .
Backward or up-glacier melting of the terminus or the borders of a glacier (27a).
Glacier table .
A block of sonte ^ stone^ supported by a pedestal of ice on the surface of a glacier (27).
Glacier tongue .
Glacier ice extending seaward from shore; the source of icebergs. Also used to describe the terminal portions of valley glaciers which are often shaped like a tongue (14; 47).
Glacier variations .
Advances or recessions of a glacier without distinc– tion as to cause; may affect termini, thickness, or relation to present or former tributaries. The volume of ice is a major factor (27a).
Glacier wind .
A draft of cold air blowing out from a cavelike opening in front of a glacier, caused by the density difference between the cold air inside and the relatively warm air outside (53a).
Glaciology .
The study of glaciers and glaciations of any period in earth history (27a).
Gla c ^ ç^ on [F] ( Ldina [R]).
A piece of sea ice smaller than a floe (47). (See Bergy bit, Bit, Cake, Growler .)

EA-I. Glossary

Glare .
An indication in a cloudless sky of ice or snow beyond a dark horizon of land or water. Some claim that ice beyond a dark horizon throws upward no glare that can be seen, and that if a glare is seen the sky is not really cloudless at the horizon, whereupon the word should be blink (47).
Glass ice ( Sklianka [R]).
A thin k sparkling crust on a calm sea produced by the coalescence of patches of ice fat (68).
Glaze or Glazed frost ( Verglas [F]).
Formed by the freezing of water as a film of ice on any solid object. The water may be derived from rain, melted snow or ice, dew or water droplets from mist (3; 40). (See Glitter, Icing .)
Gletscher [D and G].
See Glacier .
Glimmer ice ( Mica glac e ^ é^ e [F], Naslud [R]).
Fine ice formed on the [: ] surface of old ice from thaw water, usually in the spring (25; 70). ( See Snow-water pool .)
Glitter .
Such icing over a frozen land that it prevents animals like cattle and reindeer from feeding because the vegetation is caked in ice. A glitter is produced when just enough rain falls on snow to con– vert it into slush, which then freezes. If there is too much rain, the snow is converted to water that flows away; if it rains too little, a crust instead of a glitter is formed on the snow. The word is said to be from the north of Scotland or from the Orkneys (47). (See Glaze, Ice storm, Icing .)
Gniloi led [R].
See Rotten ice .
Godovoi led [R].
See Winter ice .

EA-I. Glossary

Graisse [F].
See Ice fat .
Granular snow .
A precipitation of white, opaque, snowlike grains similar to soft hail but more or less flattened or oblong and generally less than 1 mm. in di ^ a^ meter, at least in one direction. They do not noticeably rebound or disintegrate when falling on hard ground (53a). (See Sphaerokrist ^ a^ lle .)
Graupel ( Gr e ^ é^ sil [F], Snow pellet ).
A snow crystal (or flake) thickly coated with rime. It may retain some of the original form of the crystal or may be approximately spherical, when it is spoken of as re– sembling a miniature snowball; the size may range up to that of a small pea. Thiessen considers it to be formed by the freezing of water droplets onto snow crystals falling through clouds (48; 53a). (See Soft hail .)
Gravel mound or Grave mound .
See Frost blister .
Gravity water .
Water in excess of pellicular water and which can, therefore, be drawn away by the force of gravity (31).
Grease .
See Ice fat .
Gr e ^ é^ sil [F].
See Graupel .
Grondeur [F].
See Growler .
Grounded ice .
Ice that is so heavily aground that it does not move before a wind or current (47).
Ground fog .
A mass of water droplets forming at the lower levels of the at– mosphere by radiation cooling or advection which occurs whenever the air cools below the dew point (39).

EA-I. Glossary

Ground frost .
Indicates the occurrence and effects of freezing temperatures below the ground surface (5 ^ 2^ ). (See Active layer, Permafrost .)
Ground ice ( Boden ^ e^ is [G], Eis im Boden [G], Fossil ice, Iskopaemyi led [R], Jordbundsis [D], Steineis [G], Stone ice, Subsoil ice , Subter–ranean ice, Underground ice , Ureis [G]).
Chunks, lenses, or layers of ice found in the earth under permafrost conditions. Some writers, for instance Markham, formerly used ground ice where we now use anchor ice (7; 26; 27; 31). (See C yr ^ ry^ stosphene .)
Ground ^ -^ ice mound .
See Frost mound .
Ground-ice wedge .
See Ice vein .
Ground moraine .
A relatively widely distributed moraine believed to have ac– cumulated beneath a glacier or to have been deposited through the process of ablation melting (15).
Groundwater, confined .
A body of groundwater overlain by material sufficiently impervious to server free hydraulic connections with overlying groundwater except at the intake. Confined water moves in conduits under the pressure due to difference in head between intake and discharge areas of the confined water body (31).
Growler ( Grondeur [F], Tartysh [R]).
A hard, solid and substantial piece of ice so deep in water as to be barely awash, usually broken from an iceberg or heavy floe. Some define a growler as glacier ice rising between 2 and 7 feet above water, smaller than a bergy bit (47; 66).
Gustoi led [R].
See Close ice .

EA-I. Glossary

Hail .
Solid precipitation usually formed by the successive freezing of water layers and growing outward from a solid center in semitransparent layers; soft hail is a snow c yr ^ ry^ stal which has become coated with frozen cloud droplets to become a snow pellet or graupel. These particles are sometimes are core of a true hailstone (39; 40; 48). (See Small hail .)
Hailstone .
A single unit of hail varying in size from pea to grapefruit, even larger; if below pea size the reference is to small hail. The largest recorded hailstone fell at Potter, Nebraska, July 6, 1928; it measured 17 inches in circumference and weighed 1 1/2 pounds (53a).
Hailstorm .
Generally a severe or prolonged thunderstorm in which hail occurs (53a).
Hanging glacier .
A glacier occupying a hanging valley, a hanging cirque or ledge, and sometimes even the edge of a plateau (42).
Hanging valley .
A hanging valley is formed when the main valley of a glacial stream erodes its bed at a faster rate than its tributary valleys, leaving the latter considerably higher and “hanging” at their junc– tion (14; 15).
Haycock .
Isolated ice blocks in the form of a haycock, thrown up above the surface of land ice or shelf ice resulting from pressure or ice move– ment. Radiating crevasses are always present (47).
Heaving .
See Frost heaving .
Heavy ice ( Glace e ^ é^ paisse [F], Tiazhelyi led [R]).
Any sea ice more than 4 or 6 feet in thickness.
Hengeskavl [N].
See Skafl .

EA-I. Glossary

Highland glacier ( Glaciation en ^ ^ manteau [F], Hochlandeis [G]).
Glacier covering the highest or central portions of a mountain district, from which ice streams issue through the valleys (e.g., in the interior of Spitsbergen, particularly New Friesland) (41).
High-polar glacier .
A glacier which consists, at least in its accumulation areas, of firn with temperatures below freezing point to a con– siderable depth (according to Seligman, at least several hundred ft.). Even in summer the temperature in the accumulation area is so low that as a rule there is no melting accompanied by the formation of water (l). (See Polar glacier, Subpolar glacier .)
Hinge crack .
A longitudinal crack formed in front of a pressure ridge because of its weight; sometimes called weight crack (47; 57).
Hoar or Hoarfrost ( Gel e ^ é^ e blanche [F]).
Crystals formed by sublimation of water vapor onto any fixed object. The word hoar comes from Anglo– Saxon and Old Norse, where it means white or light gray (47; 48).
Hochlandeis [G].
See Highland glacier .
Hole ( Dyra [R], Lunka [R]).
An opening through the ice (see rotten ice ); a round or irregular patch of open water in an area where floes are otherwise closely packed together (47).
Horn .
Three or more cirques gnawing inward against a single high part of the mountain crest can sculpture the high part into a pyramid (called a horn by climbers) with several facets, each facet being the head wall of one of the cirques (15).
Horned iceberg .
A berg nearing final stages of destruction by wave action

EA-I. Glossary

with sharply angular projections caused by unequal melting (43). (See Weathered iceberg .)
Human and animal fog .
See Biofog .
Hummock or Hummocked ice ( Toros [R] or Torosistyi led [R]).
A heap of sea ice produced by marginal crushing of floe or other ice. When new, a hummock consists of angular pieces, perhaps with snow in the crevices; hummocks of one or two summers have rounded angles but still a rugged appearance, as of miniature mountains. After several summers, hummocks on a floe or field produce the effect of a rolling prairie (6; 47; 66). (See Paleocrystic ice; Ropak .)
Hummocking ( Moutonnement [F]).
Process by which sea ice is built up into heaps and ridges (47). (See Bending, Rafting, Screwing, Tenting .)
Hummocky floes or Hummocky fields ( Scholleneis [G]).
Areas of hummocked ice frozen together (47).
Hydrolaccolith .
A large frost mound produced by the freezing of water into a lenticular body of ice (31). (See Bulguniskh, Frost mound, Pingok .)
Hygroscopic moisture .
The thin film of water on the surface of ground par– ticles which is not capable of movement through gravitational or capillary forces (31).
Hydrometeor .
Any product of condensation of atmospheric water vapor, liquid or solid, whether formed in the free atmosphere or at the earth’s surface, thus including snow, hail and other frozen precipitation as well as glaze, glitter, and like (53a).
^ Hygroscopic moisture .^
The thin film of water on the surface of ground par– ticles which is not capable of movement through gravitational or capillary forces (31).

EA-I. Glossary

Ice .
Frozen water; any of the crystalline phases of hydrogen oxide (water substance), only one of which is known to exist under natural con– ditions (3).
Ice, acicular, anchor, bay, black, bottom, brash, broken, calf, calved, candle , cat, close, coastal, compact, confluent, conglomeratic, cream, depth , dirty, disturbed, drift, East, fast, field, fine aggregate, fjord , floe, frazil, fresh, glacier, glass, glimmer, ground, grounded , heavy, hummocked, laminated, land, level, light, lolly, one-year , open, pack, paleocrystic, pancake, pelagic, penitent, polar, polar fast, pond, pressure, rafted, residual, river, rotten, rough, rubber , running, sailing, scattered, sea, sheet, shelf, shore, slob, slot , sludge, snow, spray, stranded, stream, sweet-water, talus, West , window, winter, young .
See Acicular ice, Anchor ice, etc.
Ice age .
A period of geologic history during which considerable parts of the earth were covered with glacial ice (53a).
Ice banshee .
See Cracking, Ice yowling .
Ice bar .
See Ice edge .
Ice barrage ( Barrage ).
The pandemonium of noise produced when sea ice is being crushed, especially if against a coast and in cold and calm weather. Even among drift ice, where the noise is least, Shackleton wrote: “The din, din, DIN, shall I ever forget it?” Nansen goes nearly to the limit of the language describing the racket as heard when the Fram drifted in the pack; Stefansson describes the maximum effect heard on a calm midwinter night, as having “every conceivable sound from the booming of a cannon to the thousand times magnified screeching of a rusty hinge.” Barrage din is seldom reported; for it is usually

EA-I. Glossary

obscured, especially along a coast, by the local tumult of a gale which overcomes distant sounds (47).
Ice barrier .
See Shelf ice .
Ice bay .
See Bay .
Iceberg ( Berg, Eisberg [G], Isberg [N], Isbjaerg [D], Isfjaeld [D], Ledianaia gora [R], Sikuleq [E]).
A mass of floating or stranded glacier ice rising more than 16 feet above the surface of the sea when afloat (47).
Iceberg , black and white , blocky , horned , ice island , pyramidy , tabular , unconformity , weathered .
See Black and white iceberg, Blocky ice- berg, etc.
Iceberg tabula ri ^ ir^ e [F].
See Tabular iceberg.
Iceblink ( Clart e ^ é^ des glaces [F], Eisblink [G], Isblink [D], Ledianoi otblesk [R]).
See Blink, Glare, Sky map .
Ice block .
See Ice jam .
Icebound .
Surrounded with ice so as to be incapable of advancing, as an ice– bound vessel; so surrounded or obstructed with ice as to be hin– dered from access to a coast or harbor (63).
Icecap .
A domed glacier, large or small, covering a land area of moderate relief. While this appears to be the commonest usage, eminent men disagree; for Ahlmann says he calls Vatnajökull in Iceland a glacier cap because it is “not large enough to be called an icecap or inland ice.” Historically, an icecap should be the largest pos– sible body of land ice, for the concept is derived from the Greek cosmographic doctrine of the Five Zones — one too hot for life,

EA-I. Glossary

the torrid; two suitable for plants and animals, the temperate; and two so cold that life was impossible, the frigid. Each frigid zone was then conceived as having an icecap centered at its pole and extending symmetrically in all directions until it nearly or quite touched the edge of the adjoining temperate zone, with all waters frozen to the bottom and all lands snow- or ice-covered (14; 47). (See Continental glacier, Ice sheet, Inland ice .)
Ice cave .
A cave in which ice lasts through the whole year or the greater part of it. In winter the cold, hence heavy, air flows downward into the cave and displaces the warm air which rises and flows away. In summer the warm air cannot flow downward into the cave; hence any slight warming within the cave is by the slow conduction of heat through the overhead column of air or through the ground, which may not suffice to melt the ice (53a). (See Induced permafrost .)
Ice cliff ( Barrier, Barri e ^ è^ re [F], Chinese wall, Zator [R]).
The steep terminus of a glacier which rests in water or on the edge of a precipice (14).
Ice confetti .
See Spicule fog .
Ice conglomerate .
See Conglomeratic ice .
Ice core .
The ice underlying the firn snow which often covers the rock of a ridge (40).
Ice cornice .
See Cornice .
Ice-cream ice .
See Cream ice .
Icecrete .
Material made from aggregates with ice acting as the cementing agent. used as a substitute for concrete during no-thaw periods in the North (38). (See Snowcrete .)

EA-I. Glossary

Ice-crystal fog .
See Spicule fog .
Ice crystals ( Cristaux de glace [F], Eiskristallen [G], Ledian v ^ y^ e igly [R]).
The form in which ice always, so far as we know, appears in nature. Five types have been distinguished: hexagonal columns, pyramids and plates, triangular and twelve-sided plates. Like raindrops, they originate through condensation upon some sort of nucleus. The hexagonal is the usual form but it is varied by countless patterns of complicated design which are believed to depend on the life his– tory of the crystal. The union of several ice crystals produces a snowflake; in glaciers the crystals are sometimes “as big as small watermelons” (Sharp). The formation of ice crystals marks the initial stage of the freezing of water (39; 41; 42; 70).
Ice dike .
A formation of secondary ice along a crevice in a glacier or ground ice (42; [: ] 63).
Ice edge ( Kromka lda [R]).
The boundary at any given time between pack ice and the open sea. It may be a regular line with considerable tight– ening of the floes along the edge, known as a sea bar or ice bar, or may consist of a succession of ice streams or patches, or may be frayed out into a number of points and bights, with perhaps off– lying isolated fragments. The position of the ice edge depends on wind and tide, and varies considerably from day to day and year to year. The average position for any given month, based on observa– tions over a number of years, is described as the monthly [: ] ice limit (66).

EA-I. Glossary

Ice fall .
An interruption in the relatively smooth surface of a glacier, caused by an abrupt steepening in the slope of its bed, resulting in a fracture ^ d^ zone of crevasses and s e ^ é^ racs (14; 47).
Ice fat ( Eisbrei [G], Graisse [F], Grease, Salo [R]).
Tiny ice crystals which coalesce and gather on the surface of the sea to make it look as if covered with small patches of congealed fat. Ice fat gives the sea a look as if watered silk (moire) had been spread over it (42; 68).
Ice feathers .
See Rime .
Ice field ( Champ de glace [F], Eisfeld [G], Field, Giant floe, L ^ e^ dianoe pole [R], Smoroz [R]).
The largest connected area of drift ice. They are from several to scores of miles wide; their limits cannot be seen from a ship’s masthead. Also the large accumulation basin of a glacier (3; 47).
Ice flowers ( Flower ice ).
(1) Crystals sublimed onto ice sheets over water at points where a high concentration of water vapor exists, for in– stance, close to cracks in the ice. (2) The crust of salt crystals that forms on top when young ice gets thick enough, or the tempera– ture of the air low enough, so that the brine slush freezes hard. (3) Ice crystals within a sheet of ice, or on the surface of quiet, slowly freezing water, which form flower-like designs (40; 47; 53a). (See Salt crust .)
Ice fog .
A cloud of ice crystals produced in the lower levels of the atmos– phere whenever the air cools below −39°C. and the air is super– saturated with respect to ice. A spicule fog may be produced under

EA-I. Glossary

similar conditions at temperatures warmer than −39°C. if the air contains sufficient numbers of foreign particles which serve as ice nuclei (39) ^ .^
Ice foot ( Banquette c o ^ ô^ ti e ^ è^ re [F], Ceinture des glaces [F], Collar ice , Lisi e ^ è^ re des glaces [F], Podosh ^ v^ a lda [R], Ruban [R]).
Ice step attached to the coast, unmoved by tides, and remaining after the ordinary fast ice has moved away (6; 66).
Ice fringe ( Frost ribbon ).
A deposit on objects of moisture exuded from plants and appearing as frost fringes. As frost ribbon, this has been described as produced by the freezing of water that rises by capillary action in one or more sap tubes, and comes to the surface mainly, if not wholly, through a row of minute open– ings (53a).
Ice front .
The present terminus of a glacier whether upon the land, in the sea, in a river, or in a lake. The term should not be applied in this sense to isolated floating ice in sea water as in the Arctic and Antarctic regions (2 5 ^ 7^ a).
Ice glands .
Nearly vertical columns of coarsely crystalline ice, recognizable during the ablation season as bumps or pimples on the surface of a glacier’s firn field. They run through the firn mass in irregular, vertical belts, and in appearance resemble gnarled trunks or columns. They may be 6 feet in diameter and are associated with ice bands and ice lenses (1).
Ice gush .
Debris of ice and water in a crevasse of a glacier (63).
Ice heap .
See Icing mound .
Ice hillock .
See Icing mound .

EA-I. Glossary

Ice hour ( Iedianoi chas [R]).
The mean interval between the culmination of the moon and the closest following tidal compression of ice at any given place. This term proposed by Zubov, and apparently now in use by Soviet oceanographic students of sea-ice problems, analogizes from standard tidal phraseology. He says that just as the mean (high-water) tidal interval is determined for every port, the ice hour should be determined at a given location from a series of observations. In establishing the ice hour, it should, however, be taken into consideration that the closing in and opening up of ice is not caused by tides alone. Ice movement caused by tides is characteristic of narrow straits with much- indented shores, a complicated bottom relief, and swift tidal cur– rents. After the ice hours have been established for a number of points in a given area, it will be possible to use a line drawn between them to show the simultaneous tidal compression of ice. This information will be useful to navigators for plotting courses, planning arrival and departure times of vessels, etc. (34a; 69).
Ice island .
An island completely buried under snow or ice, showing no exposed rock surfaces. Also name applied by flyers to particularly land– like ice fields observed drifting in or north of the Beaufort Sea (14; 47; 57). (See Floeberg, Ice foot, ^ Ice island ,^ Paleocrystic ice .)
Ice island iceberg .
A berg having a conical-shaped or dome-shaped summit; often mistaken by mariners for ice-covered islands (57).
Ice jam ( Zaboi [R]).
The heaping up of broken river ice in spring at a bend or narrow part of the channel, permitting the water to dam up

EA-I. Glossary

behind the jam, perhaps to flood surrounding lowland. Formerly, an ice jam was sometimes called an ice block, as by Markham (23; 47).
Ice limit .
The greatest extent of the ice at any given time; also the average position of the ice edge at any given period, based on observation over many years (47; 51).
Ice mound .
See Frost mound .
Ice mushroom .
See Mus ^ h^ room pillars .
Ice needle ( Ice spicule ).
A thin shaft of ice which seems to float in the air when made visible by sunshine. It is considered that cirrus clouds are mostly composed of ice needles. Not to be confused with needle ice when that expression is used as a synonym for candle ice (53a).
Ice pellets .
Raindrops frozen solid by passing through a cold layer in the atmosphere (40). (See Sleet .)
Ice pipe .
Cylindrical-shaped ice vein (38).
Ice point .
The temperature of a mixture of pure ice and water in phase equil– ibrium under a pressure of 760 mm. of mercury. It is the melting point of pure ice at this pressure and equals 0°C. by definition (3).
Ice Pole .
See Pole of Inaccessibility .
Ice pond .
A^ ^pond from which people saw or cut ice for use as drinking and cook– ing water during winter or for refrigeration purposes during summer (47).
Icequake .
Crash or concussion attending the breaking up of masses of ice (63). (See Jökulhlaup .)
Ice rind ( Eisrinde [G], Incrustation de glace [F]).
Thin, hard ice formed by

EA-I. Glossary

the freezing of slush in calm water at low temperatures (47). (See Glass ^ ^ ice, Nilas .)
Ice shed .
A glacial divide or crest from which ice moves in opposite di– rections (63).
Ice sheet .
One of the two main types of glaciers, the other being valley glacier. In contrast to valley glaciers, sheets are not confined to valleys and may spread to continental size, as the 5,000,000– square-mile sheet of Antarctica and the 637,000-square-mile one of Greenland which, together, contain 97% of all the glacier ice in the world. In recent usage, both large and small ice sheets are sometimes called icecaps though for ^ m^ erly an icecap was thought of as vast in size (15; 47).
Ice sky ( Ledianoe nebo [R]).
See Blink, Sky map .
Ice sludge .
See Sludge .
Ice spicule .
See Ice needle .
Ice stalagmites .
Stalagmites formed by drip of water exactly as are true stalagmites (40).
Ice storm ( Silver thaw ).
A storm in which rain forms ice on the ground and upon objects because they are at a subfreezing temperature (53a). (See Glitter .)
Ice stream .
A term applied to the valley portion of a glacier where its sides are well defined and where the characteristic manifestations of flow are evident. At sea it is an isolated strip of brash or pack , narrower than a broken belt, pressed together by wind, swell, or tide, usually moving or thought of as moving along a coast line (14; 66).

EA-I. Glossary

Ice ton .
The theoretical number of heat units required to melt 1 ton of freshwater ice at 32°F. It is 284,000 B.t.u., taking a ton at 2,000 lb. (63).
Ice tremor ( Tremor ).
That trembling of heavy sea ice which is not per– ceptible to the ordinary unaided human senses but which is re– vealed by things like the trembling of the surface of a bowl of mercury. This tremor is considered to be due to the crushing of ice at a great distance, perhaps tens of miles from the observa– tion point (47).
Ice umbrellas .
See Mushroom pillars .
Ice vein ( Ground-ice wedge ).
A narrow crack or fissure of the ground filled with ice which may extend below the permafrost table. Leffingwell says that open frost cracks (in the ground) are in a favorable position for being filled with water from the melting snow, as most of them lie in depressions upon a flat surface. Those that by chance get no water may become filled with ice crystals deposited by the damp sir, by internal “breathing.” The crack is thus filled with solid ice from the freezing of the water, or contains much ice in the form of frost crystals, so that a narrow vein of true ground ice is formed in the portion which lies below the depth reached by the annual thawing (26; 31).
Ice warping .
See Warping .
Ice worms ( Snow worms ).
Worms ( Mesenchytraeus solifugus ^^ ; O ^ Ø^ ligochaetous ^ O^ Ø^ ligochaetous^ annelids^annelids^) usually less than 3/4 inch in length and black or brownish- black in color, found in thaw water on glaciers. They were reported from [: ] Switzerland centuries ago; in North America they have been reported from Alaska south to California (34; 64).

EA-I. Glossary

Ice yowling ( Yowling ).
An unearthly, doleful, long-drawn-out screech head in winter on large northern lakes when a crack, tens of miles long, forms through ice contraction caused by a drop in tempera– ture. Presumably the sound would be like a gunshot if all of it reached the ear simultaneously; but the sound from the nearest part of the crack arrives first, and from more remote parts later and later, producing the effect of a banshee scream (47). (See Cracking .)
Icicles .
Ice stalagtites formed by the freezing of pendant water droplets (40).
Icing ( Naled [R]).
Surface ice formed in winter by successive freezings of sheets of water from a spring or river, the structure thus being laminated, with the oldest layers farthest down; the term also refers to this process of ice formation. If thick and localized, the name is icing mound ; when it outlasts the summer it is a taryn in Russian. On cliffs near the sea, seaside structures, and vessels at sea in cold weather, icing is formed by spray; it may be formed on most anything by rain at below-freezing temperatures. In avia– tion, the formation of ice on aircraft in flight; can form at any temperature below 32°F. and has been observed as low as −40°F.; the heaviest icing usually occurs between 32° and 15°F. [: ] (31; 42; 43; 48; 53a). (See Flooding, Glitter .)
Icing mound ( Ice heap, Ice hillock ).
A localized icing of substantial thick– ness but of more or less limited areal extent; may also form entirely or in part by the upwarp of a layer of ice (as in a river) by the hydrostatic pressure of water (31).

EA-I. Glossary

Incrustation de glace [F].
See Ice rind.
Indlandsis [D].
See Inland ice .
Induced permafrost .
This is permafrost found outside ordinary permafrost limits in a region which does not have the usual required conditions. Naturally induced permafrost is found where caves or other natural openings, vertical ly or slanting ly downward into the earth, permit gravity-controlled storage of enough cold winter air to preserve frost through the full length of the summer, as in various ice caves that are outside the regular permafrost areas. Artifically induced permafrost is found in pits dug by man into unfrozen ground which are deep enough to hold a sufficient amount of winter-chilled air to maintain at the bottom of the pit a below-freezing temperature throughout all summers, as in the burial pits of the Altai Plateau (47).
Inland ice ( Indlandsis [D]).
The interior portion of any ice sheet, frequently applied to the icecap of Greenland. Logically this name fits the even greater icecap of the Antarctic Continent but it is not often so used (47). (See Continental glacier, Icecap, Ice sheet .)
Intergelisol ( Pereletok [R]).
A layer of frozen ground between the permafrost or pergelisol and the active layer or mollisol, which may persist for one or several years (9).
Intermontane glacier .
A glacier, produced by the confluence of numerous moun– tain and valley glaciers, which occupies spacious troughlike depressions between separate mountain ranges or mountain groups (28). (See Ice stream .)

EA-I. Glossary

Intrapermafrost water .
Groundwater in unfrozen layers, lenses, or veins within the permafrost (31).
Involution .
A process of snow cornice change which beings ^ begins^ as soon as a cornice has formed, sometimes even during formation; it sinks [: ] ^ slowly by^ its own weight, the pointed tip dropping farthest owing to its being the thinnest and weakest portion. This ac– centuates the rounded appearance often possessed by cornices. Seligman proposed this name, a translation of the German Einrollen (40).
Isberg [D].
See Iceberg .
Isbjaerg [D].
See Iceberg .
Isblink [D].
See Iceblink .
Isfjaeld [D].
See Iceberg .
Iskopaemyi led [R].
See Ground ice .
Island of talik .
Unfrozen ground beneath the seasonally frozen ground ( active layer ), surrounded on its sides by the permafrost, and extending vertically to the bottom of the permafrost (31).

EA-I. Glossary

Jeune glace [F].
See Young ice .
Jökla-m s [I].
See Glacier mice .
Jökulhlaup [I].
The word means glacier-leap, implying a sudden uplift and fracturing of a glacier, therefore perhaps to be translated, glacier-burst; it describes an excessively rapid large-scale glacial ablation, due to subglacial volcanic activity coupled with the resultant torrential runoff, which carries huge blocks of ice as well as glacially derived rock debris over an outwash plain. These cateclysms of destruction occur chiefly in Iceland, particu– larly on its south coast, when a wall of water and broken ice, described as tens and even scores of feet high, rushes down a valley, sweeping away not merely all bridges, roads and other man-made things but also the soil, to make the valley in effect a desert (22; 47).
Jökull [I].
See Glacier .
Jordbundsis [D].
See Ground ice .

EA-I. Glossary

Kannik [E].
Falling snow — applied to snow only while it is on its way from the sky to the ground (47).
Kar [G].
See Cirque .
Kettle .
A depression that occurs in glacial drift, usually stratified, that has been made by the wasting away of a mass of ice that had lain wholly or partly buried in the drift (15).
Kettle or Kettle-hole lake .
See Cave-in lake .
Kromka lda [R].
See Ice edge .
Krupnobityi led [R].
Large glac^ç^ons (55).
Küsteneis [G].
See Fast ice .

EA-I. Glossary

Lake .
Large patch of open water within the borders of pack ice (33; 43). (See Polynia, Pool .)
Laminated ice .
Ice formed by the telescoping of thin sheets. As the resistance to the motion of a layer of ice becomes great, the thin ice fractures and a new layer is shoved up, so that a notable thickness of laminated ice may thus be built up. Laminated ice may also be formed by the development of flow structures (26; 42). (See Icing, Rafting .)
Land blink .
See Blink, Sky map .
Landfast ice ( Beregovoi pripai [R]).
See Fast ice .
Land floe .
Fast ice which has broken away from the shore; also used as a synonym of fast ice (47).
Land ice .
Ice that has formed on land, usually from snow; not formed on or in water (47; 51a).
Land sky .
See Sky map .
Landslide debris .
A ridge of earth on drifting sea ice resulting from a landslide which descended upon fast ice that later broke loose from the land. Stefansson reported such a ridge of earth, boulders, and vegetation that was approximately ^ 55 feet^ long, 5 feet high, and 10 feet wide, that rested on a moving floe, beyond sight of land to the southwest of Meighen Island; Takpuk Island, north of Alaska, and the Land of Bus, between Greenland and Great Britain ^ ,^ were probably landslide debris (14; 47). (See Dirty ice .)
Lane .
See Lead .

EA-I. Glossary

Layered permafrost .
Ground consisting of permanently frozen layers alter– nating with unfrozen layers or taliks (31).
Ldina [R].
See Glac^ç^on.
Lead ( Channel, Lane, Razvodie [R]).
To sailors a lead is a navigable passage through any kind of ice; to sledge travelers it is an ice crack too wide for men, sledges, and dogs to cross easily, i.e., any crack wider than 3 to 5 feet. A lead may still be so called though frozen over with young or even medium-old ice (6; 47).
Led bukht [R].
See Bay ice .
Ledianaia gora [R].
See Iceberg ; literally “ice mountain” (55).
Ledianaia kasha [R].
See Slob .
Ledianoi chas [R].
See Ice hour .
Ledianoe nebo [R].
See Ice sky .
Ledianoe pole [R].
See Ice field .
Ledianoi otblesk [R].
See Iceblink .
Ledianoi zabereg [R].
The new ice adhering to the shore (in bays, gulfs, and among islands) when it beings^begins^ to grow outward toward the open sea. First stage in the formation of fast ice (54; 55).
Ledianye igly .
See Ice crystals .
Ledokhod [R].
See Break-up .
Ledostav [R].
See Freeze-up .
Level ice ( Flacheis [G], ^ G^ lace plate [F], Rovnyi led [R], Smoroz [R]).
All unhummocked ice, no matter of what age or thickness. In the early stages it is more usually termed young ice (66). (See Fjord ice , Winter ice .)

EA-I. Glossary

Level of zero annual amplitude .
The level to which seasonal change of tem– perature extends into permafrost or glaciers. Below this level the temperature gradient is more or less stable the year round (3; 31).
Light blink .
See Blink, Sky map .
Light ice .
Winter ice [: ] up to 2 feet in thickness (47). (See Young ice .)
Light sky or Lighted sky .
See Blink, Color sky, Glare, Sky map .
Lisi e^è^ re des glaces [F].
See Ice foot .
Lolly ice .
Fine particles of ice in sea water which, when they are first formed, are colloidal and are not visible in the water in which they are floating (4a). (See Frazil ice .)
Loose ice .
See Open ice .
Lunka [R]
See Hole .

EA-I. Glossary

Marble crust .
Extremely hard, iced-up snow, occurring usually in small round patches. Believed to originate from old wind slab which had become sodden with rain or thaw water and froze hard. Not a true crust (40).
Marginal crushing ( Valon [R]).
The process which occurs when floes press against each other under stress of wind or current. If the pressure continues, ridges are built up; if it slackens, the broken pieces fall into the water to become mush or brash ice (47).
Marginal lake .
A lake at the terminal or lateral borders of an ice tongue (27a).
Melkobityi led [R].
See Brash .
Melting point ( Freezing point ).
The fusion point of a solid. In meteorology, the point at which ice from pure water melts under normal atmos– pheric pressure, reckoned at 32°F. or 0°C. (39; 53a).
Merzlota [R].
Frost or freezing.
[: ] ^ Merzlotovedenie^ [R].
See Permafrostology .
Mica glac e ^ é^ e [F].
See Glimmer ice .
Middle Pack .
Term frequently used, instead of Baffin Bay Pack, to designate the entire body of drifting ice west of Greenland; but Smith defines Middle Pack as the part of the ice that the winds and slow cyclonic circulation of the bay tend to collect in the central and Melville Bay sections. The middle position of the pack is somewhat accentuated in late summer by the widening of the shore waters around the coasts of Baffin Bay (33; 44). (See North Water, West Ice .)

EA-I. Glossary

Mnogole n tnii led [R].
See Old ice .
Mnogosloinyi led [R].
See Rafted ice .
Mollisol .
See Active layer .
Mollition .
The act or process of thawing the mollisol or active layer (9).
Molodik [R].
See Young ice .
Molodoi led [R].
See Young ice .
Moulin ( Glacier mill ).
A steeply inclined hole in the ice of a glacier which acts as a discharge channel for surface meltwater (64).
Mountain glacier .
A glacier that has its source near the crests of lofty mountains and thence descends as a narrow, gradually tapering tongue, following valleys, much as streams of water follow chan– nels (28). (See Ice stream, Valley glacier .)
Moutonn e ^ é^ e [F] ( Weathered ice ).
A term sometimes used to describe the weathered appearance of hummocky polar ice after the sharp forms of the hummocks and pressure ridges become rounded through melting (47). (See Paleocrystic ice .)
Moutonnement [F].
See Hummocking .
Muck .
Mixture of decayed vegetable matter and siltlike material (with a high water content), often forming the surface layer of the ground in permafrost areas. In river valleys, much may be as much as 100 feet thick (31). (See Duff .)
Mud polygon .
See Fissure Polygons .
Mud volcano .
See Pingok .
Mush .
See Brash .

EA-I. Glossary

Mushroom ice .
See Mushroom pillars .
Mushroom pillars ( Umbrella pillars, Ice umbrellas ).
Upward projections of ice (sometimes f or ^ ro^ zen mud) formed when some insulator, often a flag of slate or a wad of moss or peat, shelters the ice beneath enough so that the ice roundabout melts more rapidly under the effect of direct sunlight or rain. The opposite of dust hole (47). (See Niggerheads .)
Muskeg .
A resiliently carpet t ed surface of bog mosses and tussocky sedges characterized by low bearing power and high moisture content, and underlain by a saturated bed of peat of variable depth. It develops in undrained depressions, which have usually been caused either by glacial action or by the impermeability of an under– lying permafrost surface. A muskeg area may support a stunted growth of trees (usually spruce or tamarac ^ k^ ), but trees are not an essential element in its development. As the frost leaves muskegs in the height of summer to depths of several feet, they become formidable obstacles to overland travel (51a).

EA-I. Glossary

Nabivnoi led [R].
See Rafted ice .
Naled [R].
See Icing .
Nanosnyi led [R].
Ice not made locally; literally, “ice brought down” (55).
Naslud [R].
See Glimmer ice, Snow-water pool .
Nast [R].
The hard crust on ice or snow which forms after a thaw (60).
Natirvik [E].
Snow drifting along the ground, may be high enough so the horizon is hidden but must not be high enough to obscure the sky as you look up, for then it would be a birktok. The word is ordinarily applied to snow drifting shoulder-high, or just a little higher or lower. This form is used in northern Alaska and northwestern Canada; the Greenland form is natirnik (47). (See Pozemka .)
Nebelreif [G].
See Rime .
Needle .
A slender needle-like snow crystal usually having a structure con– sisting of needle-like components lying parallel and closely knit together. (Length/diameter greater than 5.) (48)
Needle ice .
See Candle ice .
Neige sauvage [F].
See Wild snow .
Nesiak [R].
See Floeberg .
N e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ .
See Firn .
N e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ field or slope .
See Firn field .
N e ^ é^ v e ^ é^ line .
See Firn line .
New snow ( Fluff ).
Snow unaltered by wind and sunshine following precipitation and which still possesses a fluffy, feathery, or floury nature (40).
Nieve penitente [Sp].
Fields of pinnacled snow found in high mountains. The

EA-I. Glossary

expression is said to come from the imagination of Latin Amer– icans who consider that in the Andes these formations resemble a throng of kneeling worshipers (53a). (See Penitent snow .)
Niggerheads .
Hummocks common to the permafrost grasslands which give the pedestrian the impression that each is mushroom-shaped, standing on a stalk somewhat more slender than the top of the hummock so that, unless you plant your foot in its center, the head of the hummock seems to nod and your foot slips to one side into a crack filled with mud or water. Also called women’s heads, t e ^ ê^ te de femme (47). (See Mushroom pillars .)
Nilas [R], dark .
Ice that forms on a calm sea when the crystals begin to adhere to each other in a sheet. It has a crumbly structure; there is so much salt in it that snow melts as it falls even in cold weather. When viewed among snowy old ice, the nilas looks black. When it gets much over an inch thick, it turns into gray nilas (10).
Nilas [R], gray .
Next stage in ice formation on a calm sea after dark nilas . When it gets between 2 and 3 inches thick the salt crystals on its surface become dry enough so snow can drop on this ice without being salt-melted, if the weather is cold. When broken it is gray in color, as also on the sea among snowy old ice. In the inter– mediate stage between dark and gray nilas, thickness between 1 and 2 inches, it splashes ice-cream fashion if dropped on a hard surface; the gray nilas begins to behave more like freshwater ice (10; 47).
Nip or Nipping ( Pinching ).
Closing up of the ice so as to pinch a vessel and

EA-I. Glossary

prevent her passage. A vessel so caught, although undamaged, is said to be nipped ( pris ); there is some pressure on her sides, but it is not dangerous. It differs from beset in that for nipping you think of two pieces of ice closing like a vise while beset pic– tures a ship hemmed in from all sides by several pieces of ice (47; 66).
North Water .
A sea area between Greenland and the Canadian islands, in the northern end of Baffin Bay, from the vicinity of Cape York and Lancaster Sound north to Smith Sound, that is relatively or quite ice-free at all seasons; formerly the rendezvous of Scottish and other whalers because whales abounded and there was no serious interference by ice (33; 43; 47). (See Baffin Bay Pack, Middle Pack, West Ice .)
Nunatak [E].
An island of rock or other land surrounded by glacier ice. The word (pronounced noo’-na-tak) is from the Eskimo language of West Greenland and is there usually applied to peaks or small areas of land that rise out of the inland ice (14; 47).

EA-I. Glossary

Oblomki polei [R].
See Floe .
Oceanocryology .
Cryology in relation to the sea (70).
Odnoletnii led [R].
See Winter ice ; literally “one-year ice” (55).
Offshore water ( Fl ^ e^ ques d’eau c o ^ ô^ ti e ^ è^ res [F], Vodianoi zabereg [R]).
Sheets of water formed on the ice along the coast by melting of snow on the shore and on the ice, and also by the melting of the ice (6).
Old ice ( Mnogoletnii led [R], Staryi led [R]).
See Paleocrystic ice, Polar ice .
Old snow .
Snow which has passed beyond the settled or loose-lying powdery stages. It includes the various types of firn snow, sun crust, and rain crust, and the harder forms of wind-packed mow (40).
Omelettes de glace [F].
See Pancake ice .
One-year ice ( Odnoletnii led [R]).
Fields and floes of last season are known the following summer as one-year ice. Water obtained by melting this ice is nearly or quite fresh to the palate. The thickness will be less the more snow it had on top and will run, in the Arctic Sea, toward the end of winter, from 5 or 6 feet with much snow to 8 or 9 with little snow, the average probably around 7 feet (8; 47). (See Winter ice .)
Open ice ( Glace p e ^ é^ n e ^ é^ trable [F], Loose ice, Open pack, Razrezhennyi led [R], Slack ice ).
The term refers to possibilities of navigation through drift ice in relation to craft of specified type. For sailing ships, built or strengthened for ice, it refers to floes so scat– tered that, with skill and care, a ship could zigzag through without hitting other than small or weak pieces, implying that the sea would be something between 20% and 40% ice-covered. The meaning

EA-I. Glossary

would be about the same for modern single screw, unprotected steamers. The fairly powerful and strong Yankee whaling ships, as used north of Alaska from the 1880’s to 1906, considered the ice open perhaps up to 50% cover, if the floes were not heavy (45; 47). (See Drift ice, Sailing ice .)
Open lead .
A lead that has not been frozen (47).
Open pack .
See Open ice .
Open polar sea .
See Polynia, sea .
Open season .
The time of year during which, so far as ice is concerned, navigation is ordinarily possible on a northern lake, river, or part of the Arctic Sea. “An open season” describes a summer when navigation is longer, less difficult, or both, than during an ordinary year (47).
Open system .
A condition of freezing of ground when additional supply of water is available either through free percolation or through capil– lary movement (31).
Open water ( Chistaia voda [R], Eaux libres [F], Otkrytaia voda [R]).
Water free of drifting ice, or free enough for permitting a ship to proceed at moderate speed. Also used of large patches of ice-free water in a generally ice-encumbered sea. In the latter sense about the same as a pool (47).
Otblesk [R].
See Blink .
Otkrytaia voda [R].
See Open water .
Outlet glacier .
A glacier that issues from the margin of an icecap and carries the surplus ice out through deep-cut valleys and fjords. They are among the longest and mightiest ice-streams in existence, and have been known to attain lengths well over 100 miles (28).

EA-I. Glossary

Pack or Pack ice ( Banquise [F], Drivis [N], Pak [R], Treibeis [G]).
The ordinary British-American meaning of pack is sea ice which has drifted from its original position. It is then classified into: (1) close pack, (2) open pack, and (3) drift ice. In recent Soviet li et ^ te^ rature pack is used for that (estimated) 60 to 80% of Arctic Sea ice area which is impenetrable to the most powerful modern ships, other than submarines. This assumes the triplicate classi– fication of (1) fast ice, (2) drift ice, and (3) pack ice (47; 68; ^ 69^ ). (See Polar Pack .)
Pak [R].
See Pack .
Palabazhnik [R].
Fragments resulting from the break-up of ice rind (55).
Paleocrystic ice ( Glaces anciennes [F], Vieille glace [F]).
Very old sea ice which simulates land because the pressure ridges have been so rounded by the sun and rain of many years that a snow-covered pale– ocrystic field reminds of a winter scene on a rolling Dakota prairie. This ice was first described from the southern Beaufort Sea during the Franklin Search of the 1850’s; the name may not have been coined until by the Nares expedition of 1876-77. Some con– fusion has developed recently through writings which have applied the term to ice fractured by heavy pressure and recemented so as to present great but as yet relatively unweathered pressure ridges (47). (See Sikussak .)
Paleocrystic Sea .
This term has been used especially by British writers to describe that part of the Arctic Sea which is occupied to a con– siderable extent, perhaps from 10 to 30%, by paleocrystic fields

EA-I. Glossary

and floes. From northwestern Ellesmere Island southwestward, this ice comes within a few miles of the fast ice, or may even touch it, past Axel Heiberg, Meighen, Ellef Ringnes, Borden, Brock, Prince Patrick, and Banks Islands, though its landward margins tend farther offshore as one passes southern Banks; thereafter the margin trends westerly, to be 100 miles offshore opposite the Mackenzie Delta but thereafter to approach within 50 miles from Alaska as far as Point Borrow; thence the trend is still farther from shore, passing northeastern Siberia at some 200 miles from the mainland and keeping well north of the New Siberian and Severnaya Zemlya archipelagoes. North of Greenland the paleocrystic margin would be the northern “shore” of what Peary called The Big Lead (47).
Pala [Fi].
See Frost mound .
Pan .
A small floe or cake (55).
Pancake ice ( Blinchatyi led, Omelettes de glace [F], Pfannkucheneis [G], Plate ice ).
Pieces of newly formed ice, approximately circular, about 1 to 6 ft. across and with raised rims, due to the pieces striking against each other. Bruce says that “if the water remain calm … the crust [of ice] divides into thousands of hexagonal [or circular-appearing] discs from about an inch to several feet in diameter, the diameter increasing with the thickness of the … ice; in between the discs, the shiny black lines of water broaden into wide lanes, and the surface of the sea is like a patchwork quilt. Now, some slight disturbance occurs, a little wind or tide,

EA-I. Glossary

which causes the surface waters to come together again, the more or less hexagonal ice discs hustle together, their delicate sides and corners are crushed and broken, and are curled up by the pressure. Thus they become subangular discs, each with a flat interior and a bruised turned-up edge, like a pancake. Again the motion of the surface of the water, due as often as not to tide, separates these discs; again they are hustled together and bruised and get their edges still more turned up. This goes on continually, and meanwhile the discs are thickening and solidifying with the con– tinued low temperature. This ice is known as ‘Pancake ice’” (8; 66).
Passive method of construction .
Method of construction in which the regime of the frozen ground at and near the structure is not disturbed (31). (See Active method .)
Passive permafrost .
Permafrost that was formed during earlier, colder climates. If destroyed it does not reappear (31).
Patches .
Collections of drift ice, the limits of which are visible (57).
Peat mound ( Torfhuegel [G].
See Frost mound .
Pelagic ice .
An obsolete expression for ice formed in the open ocean, removed from land influences (27).
Pellicular water .
Water adhering as film to rock surfaces or to the surfaces of grains that compose the rock. Pellicular water is stored water above the capillary fringe (31).
Penitent snow or ice .
Snow or ice which has been ablated until curious pillars or columns of snow remain standing out from the lowered snow level. The term is a translation from Spanish; the formation is rarely ob– served in the polar regions (40; 64). (See Nieve penitente .)

EA-I. Glossary

Penknife ice .
See Candle ice .
Pereletok [R].
See Intergelisol .
Perforated crust .
A snow crust containing small pits and hollows, formed by sun evaporation (40).
Pergelation .
See Aggradation of permafrost .
Pergelisol .
See Permafrost .
Permafrost ( Constant soil congelation, Dauerfrostboden [G], Ever-frozen ground, Gefrornis [G], Pergelisol, Permanently frozen ground , Vechnaia merzlota [R]).
That section of frozen ground, below the active layer, which remains permanently below the melting point (7; 31; 52).
Permafrost, active, aggradation of, degradation of, dry, induced, layered , passive, sporadic .
See Active permafrost, Aggradation of permafrost, etc.
Permafrost islands .
Spots of permafrost, with upper surfaces usually from 5 to 10 or more feet down, which may extend to a moderate depth but which are of limited lateral extent and are surrounded by extensive areas wholly without permafrost (31). (See Sporadic permafrost .)
Permafrostology ( Merzlotovedenie [R]).
The science of permafrost (31).
Permafrost table .
An irregular surface which represents the upper limit of permafrost (31).
Permanently frozen ground .
See Permafrost .
Pfannkucheneis [G].
See Pancake ice .
Piedmont glacier .
A glacier formed by the fusion of two or more valley

EA-I. Glossary

glaciers and occupying, in the form of a broad sheet, level or gently sloping lowlands at the base of steep mountain slopes (41; 64). (See Confluent ice .)
Pinching .
See Nip .
Pingok [E] ( Mud volcano ).
A mound of dome or truncated-cone shape, rising in permafrost country, usually from level or gently rolling land, composition fine mud or gravel mud, height range up to 250 feet, frequently with a crater-type lake, hence the white man name “mud volcano.” If very small, the crater pond may not have broken out; but often the pond has found one or many avenues of overflow, so that the crater edge presents a serrated appearance when viewed from a distance. Leffingwell believes these mounds, particularly the large ones, caused by the development of artesian conditions, water breaking through from below and piling up the mud and gravel. Pingoks have been reported chiefly from western and northern Alaska and northwestern Canada, where the Eskimo word refers to the sort of hill just described; in West Greenland the word is pingo and refers to a small vegetation hummock created through manure fertilization where a bird habitually sits (26; 47; 49). (See Frost mound .)
Pingorssarajuk [E].
See Frost mound .
Pink snow ( Crimson snow, Red snow ).
The expression is used for snow which, when viewed in springtime from a distance and at certain angles from the sun, shows a tinge various described as yellow, orange, pink, crimson. The color is produced by tiny plants, frequently Sphaerella nivalis ; in the Arctic it is observed in snowbanks at sea, as well

EA-I. Glossary

as on land, and appears to be most noticeable when the snow is slightly warmed by day to freeze again during the night. There is enough of it on the sea ice at times to cause a pink glow in a clouded sky (47). (See Color sky, Sky map .
Plate ice .
See Pancake ice .
Plateau ice sheet .
A glacier which occupies a more or less flat and plateau– like area (as opposed to a mountain ice sheet which covers a moun– tainous, uneven area), the accumulating snow taking the superficial form of an ice sheet or icecap (15; 64).
Plavuchii led [R].
Floating ice.
Plavun [R].
Literally, “something that floats.” Sometimes used as a synonym for drift ice, also slud [R] (31; 60).
Plowshare .
A plowshare-shaped depression in snow due to sun evaporation sim– ilar to that occurring in perforated crust, but intensified. A plowshare faces the sun at its highest point; Seligman has measured some 2 feet, 6 inches long (40). (See Foam crust .)
Podoshva lda [R].
See Ice foot .
Pogonip .
See Air hoar .
Poias [R].
See Belt .
Polar .
Used to designate arctic and antarctic areas. It is also used to refer to various characteristics and aspects of this region, such as polar ice and polar climate (49).
Polar fast ice .
Fast ice formed by the grounding and cementing together of polar ice (51).
Polar glacier .
At least in its higher and upper part, a polar glacier consists

EA-I. Glossary

of hard firn formed by slow recrystallization of the annual sur– plus of accumulated solid precipitation. The temperature of the glacier is below freezing even in summer down to a certain depth (according to Seligman, of at least several hundred ft.). Ahlmann divides polar glacier into high-polar and subpolar glaciers (1).
Polar ice ( Poliarnyi led [R]).
Sea ice that is more than one year old and which has been subject to hummocking. It is thought of as having drifted down from higher latitudes (4 8 ^ 7^ ).
Polar icecap .
The term is historically derived from the mistaken Graeco– Roman belief that there would be icecaps extending symmetrically in all directions from both poles — the northern was supposed by Str o ^ a^ bo to extend to the vicinities of Scotland and the Caspian Sea, Unless confined to the Antarctic Continent, where an icecap exists that nearly conforms to the old view, the expression “polar icecap” should not be used; for at best it is confusing. The only great icecap of the Northern Hemisphere lies upon Greenland and has its north end more than 400 miles from the Pole, while some of it is in the North Temperate Zone; it should be called the Greenland icecap (47). (See Icecap, Inland ice .)
Polar pack ( Arctic pack, Banquise polaire [F]).
As distinguished from pack , or heavy pack, the expression refers to that 80% or so of the Arctic Sea which surrounds the Pole of Inaccessibility or Ice Pole and into which ships cannot penetrate (47). (See Paleocrystic ice .)
Poles of cold ( Cold poles ).
The places on the earth’s surface, in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, which have the extreme minimum

EA-I. Glossary

temperatures. The northern cold pole is apparently still about 75 miles north of the Arctic Circle near Verkhoiansk, Siberia, so far as published records go (variously given, with corrections, at −93° and −95°F.); but since the weather-reporting station of Oimekon was established, southeast of Verkhoiansk some 200 miles south of the Circle, consistently lower minima have been reported from there and it may eventually gain the record. (If annual means instead of extreme minima were considered, the cold pole of the Northern Hemisphere would no doubt be somewhere in interior Greenland.) (47)
Pole of Inaccessibility (Ice Pole).
That spot in the Arctic Sea which is most remote from all points on the outer margin of the arctic pack that can barely be reached at any time of year by a ship under her own power. Preliminary estimates are that the Pole of Inaccessibility is around 400 miles from the North Pole in the direction toward Bering Strait, thus near 84° N. and 160° W. (47).
Poliarnyi led [R].
See Polar ice .
Polasa lda [R].
See Belt .
Polygonal markings .
General term for polygonal surface markings of the ground found in areas that are affected by frost action. This formation may also occur in settling snow. They are variously referred to as drought polygons, fissure polygons (primary and secondary), Karreeböden, mud-flat polygons, mud polygons, Poly gonböden, rudemarks (rutmarken), soil polygons, Spaltennetz , Steinnetz, Steinringe, stone polygons, Strukturböden, “tundra” polygons, Zellenböden (31; 39).

EA-I. Glossary

Polynia [R], river .
An unfrozen portion or window in river ice which remains unfrozen during all or a part of the winter owing to a strong current or to a local inflow of warm water either from a subaqueous spring or from a tributary (31). (See Clearing, Wake .)
Polynia [R], sea .
Any large enclosed area of water, other than a crack or lead, among fields and floes of pack ice. From this developed the “polynia theory” of an “open polar sea” which was favored by many geographers and explorers in the 19th century (47).
Pond ice .
Formed by the freezing of still, fresh water (40).
Pool .
Water contained in a depression in fields or floes. Some authors narrow the term to depressions in sea ice containing fresh water; others broaden it to a synonym for polynia (47) ^ .^ (See Puddle .)
Pothole .
A hole down into ice and produced in the spring when the sun, on striking some dark object on the ice, produces local heat that enables the dark object to melt its way downward more rapidly than the surrounding ice can thaw. If the hole gets deep enough to perforate the ice to the sea below, it becomes a drain hole (47). (See Breathing hole, Dust hole .)
Powder snow .
The early, powdery, or loose-lying stage of fallen snow (40).
Pozemka [R].
A gale during which no snow is falling; all the flying snow is wind-blown drift picked up from the ground (34a). (See Natirvik .)
Pressure .
Any movement of sea ice (upward, downward, or both) from its orig– inally level position, usually as a result of lateral movement of the ice under the influence of wind or current. Land ice subject

EA-I. Glossary

to pressure is said to be “disturbed.” In sea ice, pressure or hummocking often ^ ^ works in the sequence: (1) bending, (2) tenting , (3) rafting, and (4) screwing (57). ) (See Disturbed ice , Pressure ridge .)
Pressure area .
Area of hummocked ice formed by floes pressed together and piled up (66).
Pressure ice ( Screw ice, Szhatyi led [R]).
Ice fragments in heaps, some– times ridges, produced by crushing (47).
Pressure ice foot ( Stranded hummock ).
Pressure ridge driven by a gale up onto the shore or onto a tidal platform. Freezing spray may then transform it into an ice foot. Sometimes referred to as stranded pressure ridge (57).
Pressure melting .
Partial melting of ice by pressure, which lowers the melting point, thus causing heat to flow in from the surroundings (3).
Pressure melting point .
The temperature at which ice will melt at a given pressure other than atmospheric. This causes the temperature within a glacier, under pressure from the overlying ice, to be slightly depressed from the freezing temperature under normal at– mospheric conditions (14).
Pressure ridge .
Pressure heaps arranged in a long row, usually because the floes or fields responsible for the ridge have met so that nearly straight edges press against each other (47).
Pribrezh ^ n^ yi toros [R].
See Coastal hummock .
Prilivnoi greben [R].
Ice thrown against the coast by tides; sometimes mixed with sand and gravel (6).

EA-I. Glossary

Pris [F].
See Nip .
Progalina [R].
See Clearing .
Proglacial deposits .
Deposits made beyond the limits of a glacier. Three kinds of deposit constitute this group, accumulated respectively in streams, in lakes, and in the sea (15).
Promoina [R].
Crack caused by currents (55).
Pripei [R].
See Fast ice .
Prorub [R].
An opening cut in the ice (55).
Protaline [R].
A thawed area where naked earth or liquid water is visible (60).
Pseudo island of talik .
Unfrozen ground beneath the seasonally frozen ground ^ (^ active layer ) surrounded and underlain by continuous permafrost (31).
Puddle .
A depression in sea ice, filled with water (43). (See Pool .)
Pul a ^ o^ [R].
See Slob .
Purga [R].
See Blizzard .
Pyramidy iceberg .
An iceberg that is not blocky; the form varies widely (47).
Quor .
The ice that results when water oozes from the ground in winter and freezes. Usually this ice is partly made up from the slush first produced when the upcoming water wets snow that is already on the ground. The expression is from the fur trade (Hudson’s Bay Company) (12). (See Icing .)

EA-I. Glossary

Rafted ice ( Mnogosloinyi led [R], Nabivnoi led [R], Telescoped ice, Tented ice ^ ice ^ , Trains de glace ^ Trains de glace ^ [F].
Ice, consisting to two or more layers, formed by relatively thin pieces of ice being pushed upon or beneath other pieces under pressure (6; 47).
Rafting ( Flottage [F]).
Overriding of one or more floes under pressure, producing ice of two, three, or more layers in thickness (6; 47). (See Bending, Hummocking, Icing, Laminated ice, Screwing, Tenting .)
Rain crust .
Formed by the snow surface becoming wetted through by rain and subsequently freezing. Channels are common in rain crust (40). (See Glitter .)
Ram ( Taran [R]).
A snag jutting out below the water line from a floe or berg, produced either by the melting of the ice due to an increase in the temperature of the surface water, or by the original projection of a lower comp ^ o^ nent of rafted ice (47). (See Submerged ice foot .)
Ramming ( Bucking ).
Charging ice with a ship under full power, then backing up and charging again. New England whalers in Alaska waters com– monly spoke of repeated charging as buck^i^ng the ice (47). (See Boring .)
Rauheis [G].
See Rime .
Rauhfrost [G].
See Rime .
Ravine .
An opening in the ice eroded by a current (43).
Razrezhennyi led [R].
See Open ice .
Razdroblennyi led [R].
See Brash .
Razvodie [R].
See Lead .
Reconstituted glaciers .
See Regenerated glaciers .
Redkii led [R].
See Drift ice .

EA-I. Glossary

Red snow .
See Pink snow .
Regelation .
The process involving partial thawing of ice crystals at points of contact where pressure is most intense, followed by prompt refreezing when the pressure is relieved. Bader describes it as “the freezing together of pieces of ice (dry or wet) without heat loss” (3; 28; 41).
Regenerated glaciers ( Reconstituted or Recemented glaciers ).
A glacier nourished primarily by avalanching from one or more glaciers at a higher level. A regenerated glacier may also be a glacier which becomes active after a period of sta ^ g^ nation (14).
Regimen of glaciers .
By the regimen or material balance of a glacier is meant its total accumulation volume during one accumulation season and its total gross ablation volume during the following ablation season. If the accumulation volume is larger than the ablation, regimen has been balanced for a number of years, or if years of positive regimen have alternated with years of negative, leaving the dimensions of the glacier unchanged, the glacier is in equil– ibrium (1).
Regional snow line .
The level above which snow accumulates from year to year to generate ice bodies over a large part or all of the land, depending upon, altitude, topography, and precipitation (28). (See Climatic snow line .)
Reifgraupeln [G].
See Sphaerokristalle .
Residual ice .
Glacial ice which lacks down-valley movement; heaps of ice which were formerly parts of a glacier. May in some cases be groups of former icebergs in or upon the site of a glacial lake

EA-I. Glossary

which has been drained, or below the position of a valley-side glacier which as tumbled downward during a heavy earthquake (27a).
Residual swelling .
The difference between the original prefreezing level of the ground and the level reached by the settling after the ground is completely thawed (31).
Rime ( Givre [F], Ice feathers, Nebelreif [G], Rauheis [G], Rauhfrost [G]).
An icy structure formed on the upwind side of solid objects by the deposition and freezing of supercooled cloud droplets. It may be a mixture of snow crystals and water droplets but in its commonest form has fine feathery texture and opaque appearance (39). (See Glaze .)
Rimey .
Snow that sticks to the gliding surfaces of sleds, particularly toboggans, in mild weather, making them drag heavy. Term comes from the fur trade (Hudson’s Bay Company) (12; 47). (See Sticky surface .)
Ripples .
Structures formed when snow is being driven along the surface by a wind which is strong enough to pick up the smaller grains but unable to pick up the larger one. Ripples may also be formed by ablation (40).
River ice .
Ice formed in rivers. At sea it never represents more than a very small part of the floating ice and is unlikely to be met with far from the river delta. The expression is also used for ice which has become honeycombed during melting and which, therefore, lacks the strength of other ice. May also apply to ice which dis– integrates easily because it has become (or always was) fresh and is now candling (47; 55). (See Candle ice .)

EA-I. Glossary

Roches moutonn e ^ é^ es [F].
Series of irregular undu ^ l^ ating bosses formed on the bedrock surface by the wearing down of glacial action. They have striated and polished surfaces, especially on their stoss sides, and were recognized as early as 1787 by Saussure who named them in fancied resemblance to contemporary wigs slicked down with mutton tallow. This term has been widely misapplied and mistrans– lated and according to Flint is of doubtful value at best (15).
Ropak [R] ( Rubak [R]).
Single, small, upright hummock (10; 55).
Rotten ice ( Glace pourrie [F], Gniloi led [R], Rykhlyi led [R], Spring sludge ).
Sea water floes which have become much honeycombed in the process of melting; river or lake ice that is disintegrating through candling (47; 66).
Rough ice .
Fast ice, floe or field, that has been made uneven by ridges and hummocks of pressure ice (47).
Rovnyi led .
See Level ice .
Rubak [R].
See Ropak .
Ruban [R].
See Ice foot .
Rubber ice .
Young salt-water ice that is strong enough to carry the weight in question but which is nevertheless still so pliable that it well bend gradually, as when a loaded sledge can cross a lead covered with young ice but must keep moving because if it stopped the ice would gradually bend under the weight, finally giving way. Also applied to freshwater ice having a thickness of not over one inch and which behaves in a similar manner (39; 47).
Running ice .
Ice in motion or capable of drifting rather rapidly under the influence of wind or current, in contrast to fast ice (33; 43).
Rykhlyi led [R].
See Rotten ice .
Ryntsala [R?].
Polynia between fast ice and drift ice (55).

EA-I. Glossary

Sailing ice ( Glace navigable [F]).
Ice which is so open as to permit a sail– ing vessel to navigate without difficulty (6; 57). (See Drift ice, Open ice, Scattered ice .)
Sallying .
Rolling vessel by means of crew running from side to side in order to loosen ice round the ship and allow her to make headway (6; 66).
Salo [R].
See Ice fat .
Salt crust .
Salt that gets eliminated (“squeezed out”) from young ice and pushed upward so it forms at first a brine layer on top of [: ] the ice and later a crust of salt or, at least, of ice with a heavy salt content. When snow fells, to blanket the ice from the chill of the air, the salt crust melts to form brine slush. As long as no snow falls upon it, it salt crust gives a sandlike character to the surface of the young ice, so that a sledge drags heavy, almost as if being pulled across bare ground (47). (See Ice flowers .)
Sand snow .
Snow at −20°C, (−4°F.) or lower, which has such quality that neither ski nor sledge will glide easily on it. The surface (e.g., sled runner) glides with more difficulty the lower the temperature, but this drag is also dependent on the material of the runner or shoeing (40; 47).
Sarrazins [F].
See Brash .
Sastrugi .
See Zastruga .
Satin ice .
See Acicular ice .
Scattered ice .
The sea is from 10 to 20% covered with ice cakes and floes (45; 47). (See Open ice, Sailing ice .)
Schelfeis [G].
See Shelf ice .
Schneewasser [G].
See Snow-water pool .

EA-I. Glossary

Scholleneis [G].
See Hummocky floes .
Screw ice .
See Pressure ice .
Screwing .
The stage or form of ice pressure, usually violent, when the floes that are being crushed have rotating motion. To vessels in the pack, this is the most dangerous form of pressure. From the Norwegian skrue, to twist (47). (See Bending, Hummocking, Rafting, Tenting .)
Screwing pack .
Floes in rotary motion due to the influence of wind or other sources of pressure. The expression is also used for an area of pack in which differential ice motion of any sort is creating pres– sure ridges (47).
Sea bar .
See Ice edge .
Sea ice .
Any ice that originated by the freezing of sea water (47).
Sea smoke .
See Frost smoke .
Sem [R].
Used in White Sea area for a lead between ice fields, filled with broken ice. The ice may be sparse, thick, or compressed; when sparse a sem (pronounced see-om) may be used by a vessel as a passage (10).
S e ^ é^ racs [F].
Irregular ice columns or blocks formed by the splitting up of glacier ice under tension and aided by melting due to the sun in an ice fall or near an ice cliff. The name derives from a cheese which the formations resemble (14; 51a; 57).
Sernik [E].
See Glacier .
Settled snow .
Snow that has settled into a close-lying powdery form; the “good powder snow” of the skier (40).

EA-I. Glossary

Settling snow .
Snow intermediate between new snow ^ new snow ^ and settled snow ^ settled snow^ (40).
Shchenki [R].
See Calving .
Shear cracks .
Cracks in glaciers or sea ice caused by differential movement. The sheared parts undergo a displacement parallel to the plane of the crack (47).
Sheet ice or Sheets .
Large floes, from acres to square miles in area (New– foundland term) (33).
Shelf ice ( Barrier, Glace de socle [F], Ice barrier, Schelfeis [G].
Shelf ice is a descriptive or generic term used in a wide sense for ice formations with level surface which originate from accumula– tions of firn layers either upon persistent sea ice or upon the seaward extension of land glaciers, but now essentially nourished by annual accumulations of snow. The seaward edge is afloat. Special features are the great horizontal extents and the vertical cliffs up to 150 feet in height on the seaward face, with prominent horizontal banding and clean-cut joint faces from which tabular bergs periodically break off. It has been suggested by Brian Roberts that “shelf ice” be used as a descriptive morphological term, also as a geographical term compounded in place names, and that ice barrier be restricted to the seaward-facing cliffs of areas of shelf ice (37a; 41; 47; 67).
Shell ice .
See Cat ice .
Shock crack ( Concussion crack ).
A fissure in an insert floe produced by the impact of a rapidly moving floe. Such cracks are transverse to the pressure ridge produced (57).

EA-I. Glossary

Shore clearing .
Space of open water formed near the shore during the melting of the ice, usually caused by relatively warm thaw water coming off the land (47). (See Shore lead .)
Shore ice .
Used by some authors as a synonym of fast ice (47). (See Ice foot .)
Shore lead ( Skvoznoi vodianoi zabereg [R]).
A lead between drift ice and shore, or between drift ice and fast ice, or between fast ice and shore. The first two types may develop in any season, usually with offshore winds; the third type occurs only in summer, when the landward margin of fast ice melts. The outer edge of the fast ice, and the water just beyond either or both, are called the flaw (47). (See Shore clearing .)
Shuga [R].
See Sludge .
Sikuijuitsoq [E].
A fjord always full of ice; literally, “one that refuses to free itself of ice” (47).
Sikuleq [E].
See Iceberg .
Sikussak [E].
Very old ice, which does not drift, i.e., located in fjords that seldom become clear of ice, as on the north coast of Greenland. Resembles glacier ice, since it is formed to a great extent by snowfall and wind-blown snow (47). (See Fast ice, ^ Ice island ,^ Paleocrystic ice, Shelf ice .)
Silver thaw .
See Ice storm .
Skafl, Skaflar [I] or Skavl, Skavler [N].
A steep snowdrift. This borrowing from the Scandinavian, suggested by Seligman, would appear, in effect, to take the place of borrowing zastruga from the Russian. However, Seligman suggests that both words be borrowed, each with

EA-I. Glossary

an arbitrarily assigned meaning: skaflar or skavler to denote a sea of large erosion waves over a wide field, and zastruga to denote individual waves of skavler. The Norwegians have two other terms related to skavl: hangeskavl, a steep snowdrift which develops on a slope or on one side of a peak and has a flat or sloping upper surface with a vertical or concave front; and vindskavler, which applies to a series of skavler on an otherwise flat or sloping surface (40; 47; 51).
Sklianka [R].
See Glass ice .
Skvoznoi vodianoi zabereg [R].
See Shore lead .
Sky map ( Cloud map ).
The mirroring of a landscape in a clouded sky. A white or whitish area beneath is represented by white or lightish shading above it which is referred to as a blink, for instance iceblink, snowblink; a dark section is referred to as a sky, for instance water sky, land sky. A sky map approaches perfection as the clouds on the overcast day approach uniformity (47). (See Color sky, Glare .)
Sla ^ c^ k ice .
See Open ice .
Sleet .
Frozen raindrops according to some authorities, wet snowflakes ac– cording to others; also called ice pellets (2 ^ 1^ ; 26).
Slewing .
See Boring .
Slob or Slob ice ( Glace morcel e ^ é^ e [F], Ledianaia kasha [R], Pulo [R]).
Sludge ice pressed together, forming a compact layer through which underpowered vessels cannot pass (47). (See Brash .)
Slood .
See Slud .
Slot ice ( Glace stri e ^ é^ e [F]).
Ice slotted by erosion (47).

EA-I. Glossary

Slud ( Slood ).
Skin of wet snow that freezes on surface of land, ice, or some object; when on land it is differentiated from glitter by being more obviously snowlike, less glassy, and usually less con– tinuous or extensive. From the Scandinavian for slushy snow: Old Norse and modern Icelandice, sluth ; Danish, slud ; New Nor– wegian, sludd (6; 47). (See Nast .)
Slud [R].
A form of young sea ice (25).
Sludge or Sludge ice ( Ice sludge, Shuga [R]).
Ice imperfectly formed and floating on or mixed with a considerable amount of water; the ice crystals are formed but do not adhere to each other, or do so only slightly. Sludge may also be formed by snow falling or drifting into water. In commonest American usage sludge is the end result of the grinding process which first produced brash ; slush being reserved for the newly formed crystals making in the open sea. Another group however believes that when slush is growing in thickness, sludge is formed. Europeans often use sludge and slush interchangeably (43; 45; 47; 51).
Sludge cakes .
See Brash cakes .
Sludge floes .
See Brash floes .
Sludge lumps .
Small irregular lumps formed by the freezing of sludge during strong winds (47).
Slush .
An a a ^ c^ cumulation of ice crystals which are not, or are only slightly, frozen together. The slush gives the sea sur ^ f^ ace a grayish color, and wind ripples disappear. Slush may be formed by snow falling on sufficiently cooled water; on land or ice, by rain falling on

EA-I. Glossary

snow, by a thaw of snow, from sleet, or from the accumulation of frazil ice on surfaces (39; 43; 47). (See Ice fat, Sludge .)
Small hail .
Hail which falls almost exclusively in showers in semitrans– parent round or conical grains from 0.08 to 0.20 inches in diameter. There is usually a snow pellet nucleus with a thin ice layer around it. They are generally wet and fall from broken shower clouds, which helps to distinguish them from sleet that usually falls from a solid layers of clouds (53a). (See Hail , Hailstone .)
Smoroz [R].
See Ice field, Level ice .
Snezhnitsa [R].
See Snow-water pool .
Snezhura [R].
Ice, the first crust of which has been formed in considerable part from snow falling or drifting into freezing water (68). (See Snow ice .)
Snout .
See Terminus .
Snow .
Solid precipitation formed in the atmosphere by sublimation of water vapor onto minute solid nuclei, but it is now believed that at temperatures of -39°C. It may form spontaneously. In Eskimo there is no over-all name for snow. When falling it is kannik ; when lying on the ground it is apun ; when used to melt into drinking water or cooking, it is anniu, etc. (39; 47; 48).
Snow, compacted, corn, creeping, fallen, firn, advanced, firn, dry granular , firn, new, new, old, penitent, pink, powder, sand, settled, settling , spring, telemark, water, wet, wild .
See Compacted snow, Corn snow, etc.

EA-I. Glossary

Snow banner .
A banner-like stream of snow blown into the air from a mountain peak or ridge and sometimes extending horizontally several miles across the sky (63; 64).
Snow barchans .
See Barchans .
Snowblink .
See Blink, Sky map .
Snowbound .
Unable to leave a given place, with such means as are available, because of excessive snow (47).
Snowbreak .
(1) A melting of snow; a thaw. (2) A breaking of trees by snow; also an area over which there has been such breakage. (3) A pro– tective bar ^ r^ ier, as of trees, planted or growing naturally so that they keep snow from blocking tracks, roads, etc. This last meaning is similar to that of snow fence, as used to protect highway or railway from snow on a prairie (63).
Snow cones .
Small cones of snow which, because they are sheltered by stones, remain after water erosion has lowered the level of the surrounding snow (39).
Snow cornice .
See Cornice .
Snow cover .
The bed of snow which is superposed on the ground surface. To fully describe a snow cover, a snow profile is required to indicate the stratification, temperatures, densities, grain sizes and shapes, and the hardness of each individual layer of the snow cover (51a).
Snowcrete .
Snow hardened at low temperatures through mechanical compaction and through time enough for setting (one or several hours). The tread of an animal compresses new-fallen dry snow the later the wind sweeps the rest of the snow away, to leave the footprints standing each on its own slender stalk; the tracks of a sledge, under similar conditions will emerge looking like the fails on a

EA-I. Glossary

railway track. Some confusion of meaning has arisen through the occasional application of the term to mechanically compacted mix– tures of snow with other materials. It should probably not be extended, either, to include the icelike result of pressure upon snow at the thaw point (38; 47; ^ 51a^ ). (See Apun, Compacted snow , Icecrete .)
Snow crystal .
A growth of water molecules assuming a symmetrical, crystal– line form which grows directly from the vapor phase (39).
Snow cushion .
An accumulation of snow on a lee slope deposited in a calm or under influence of gentle winds or eddies. In the Alps the name used to be Sch ^ n^ eeschild, snow shield, now changed there to Schneesack, snow bag. Snow cushion would appear to describe this formation better and serve to distinguish it from the ordinary snowdrift (40).
Snowdrift ( Cong e ^ è^ re [F], Fann [D], Sugrob [R]).
In Great Britain, Ireland, etc., any accumulation of snow, usually applied to any deepening of snow in a flat countryside or elsewhere. In North America, applied to snow piled by the wind into a ridge that has a long axis parallel to the direction of the wind that built it up. Thus, in North America, but not in Britain, the word is about synonymous with skafl ( skavl ) and zastruga (40; 47).
Snow dust .
Snow borne by the wind in fine particles (63).
Snowflake .
An aggregate of snow crystals and particles. Seligman defines a snowflake as any “snow in the act of falling” and says that: “After the snowflake has reached the ground it quickly alters in

EA-I. Glossary

character and to distinguish it from snowflakes on the one hand and glacier ice on the other I suggest the group name ‘fallen snow,’” whereupon fallen snow becomes synonymous with the Eskimo apun (39; 40; 47; 51a). (See Kannik, Snow .)
Snow garland .
Snow festooned from trees or other objects to form a sort of rope, as much as three feet long and seven inches thick. The usual explanation is that the snow crystals, being wet, are drawn to their neighbors by the surface tension of water films (53a).
Snow hardness .
The resistance of a snow mass to penetration. It is a measure of the strength of the bonding of the constituent snow particles, generally expressed in pounds per square inch (or in kilograms per square centimeter), and measured by means of specially designed penetrometers (51a).
Snow ice .
Ice which has resulted from the metamorphism of snow its firn or glacier ice. It is a mass of granules, each an individual crystal, and there is a high air content, the amount diminishing in the change from firn to glacier ice. Among recent Soviet writers the Russian equivalent, snezhura, has been used for young ice, the first crust of which was formed in considerable part by snow falling or drifting into water (3; 26; 68).
Snow line .
See Climatic snow line, Regional snow line .
Snow peck .
A local Rocky Mountain term designating a field of naturally packed snow which gives a steady supply of water for purposes like irrigation (53a).
Snow pellet .
See Graupel .
Snow rift .
The development of a crack in a snow slope. This is nearly always of arched form, developing slowly (40).
Snow roller .
A mass of snow, generally muff-shaped, rolled up by the wind (63).
Snow sky .
See Blink, Glare, Sky map .

EA-I. Glossary

Snowslide .
A downslope snow movement only a few yards in area and a few inches in depth wh ^ i^ ch comes to rest soon. It is too small to be called an avalanche (40).
Snowstorm .
Large numbers of snow crystals or flakes falling in a continuous stream from the sky and restricting visibility to about a mile. The usual connotation is that there is some wind, though not enough to make a blizzard (39; 47). (See Birktok, Blizzard , Kannik .)
Snow swamp .
Deep snow that has an excessive amount of water in it, turning it to a gruel-like state so that animals and men sink in it readily. This may occur in very deep mountain snow because there is farther down an impervious ice layer that holds water from draining, or it may be due to land contours; at sea the snow swamps are most troublesome to foot travelers, sleds, and dogs when traversing peleocrystic floes and fields or badly humnocked ice in late spring (40; 47).
Snow-water ^ ^ pool ( Eau de neige [F], Snezhnitsa [R], Schneewasser [G]).
Formed by the melting of fresh snow on the surface of sea ice in the spring. In frosty weather these pools become covered with a thin layer of ice called naslud (6; 70).
Snow worm .
See Ice worm .
Snow wreath .
A mound or whirl of drifting snow; a snowdrift (63).
Soft hail .
Snowflakes, exceptionally a hailstone, to which supercooled fog droplets have attached themselves and frozen, called Frostgraupeln and considered anal a ^ o^ gous to rime (40). (See Graupel .)

EA-I. Glossary

Soil blister .
See Frost blister .
Solifluction .
According to J. G. Andersson who coined this term, it is the slow flowing from higher to lower ground of masses of detritus saturated with water (2b).
Spatial dendrite .
See Dendrite, spatial .
Sphaerokristalle [G].
Single prismatic crystals which have grown until they have assumed an approximately spherical shape. They appear to be skin to another sublimation form, Reifgraupeln, and are referred to in the definitions of precipitation forms in the International Cloud Atlas, which gives them what Seligman considers the misleading English name of “granular snow”; he describes them as being very brittle, shattering if they fall on a hard surface (40).
Spicule fog ( Confetti ice, Crystal fog, Frost flakes, Ice confetti, Ice-crystal fog ).
At low temperatures in still air of relatively high humidity a drop ^ ^ in temperature may bring condensation into ice crystals. With slight air motion the flakes build up into ice on the windward side of an obstruction and can build up fast on speeding planes. It is probable that a coexistence of super cooled fog or water droplets and ice crystals forms the rime deposits on the airplanes. Ground observers note the shimmering particles most easily at certain angles to a low sun when they appear as silver confetti fluttering down. Horizontal visibility is interfered with slightly or moderately, while vertically the interference is negligible (39; 46; 47).

EA-I. Glossary

Splochennyi led [R].
See Close ice .
Sploshnoi led [R].
See Compact ice .
Sporadic permafrost .
Permanently frozen ground occurring as scattered islands in the area of dominantly unfrozen ground (31). (See Permafrost islands .)
Spray ice .
Formed by the freezing of spray blown onto structures, rocks, or ice (40).
Spring crust .
Spring snow after it has resumed the crusted state owing to the lowering of the temperature. When refreezing hardens the layers throughout its section, it becomes hard firn snow (40; 64). (See Corn snow, Water snow .)
Spring powder .
Settled powder snow which has become dampened by high tem– perature (40).
Spring sludge .
See Rotten ice .
Spring snow .
Firn snow of which the cement holding the grains together has been thawed so that they fall apart and lie lo ^ o^ sely like fine gravel. Also called corn snow (39; 40; 64).
Stagnant glaciers ( Dead glaciers ).
Glaciers or portions of glaciers which have virtually ceased to flow and, because they no longer have an area of accumulation, are undergoing net loss of volume each year (14).
Stamukha [R].
A separate accumulation of ice on sea or coastal shoals. The main difference from landfast ice is that stamukhi are not attached to the shore, and are mostly located on sea shoals. They form when a floe reaches enough thickness to ground on a bank or shoal; in

EA-I. Glossary

the event of pressure, ice is piled up in high accumulations and remains stationary through the winter, in some cases even for several years (10).
^ Staryi led [R].^
^ See Old Ice .^
Stationärer gletscher [G].
See Glacier in equilibrium .
Staryi led [R].
See Old Ice .
Stationary glacier .
See Glacier in equilibrium .
Steineis [G].
See Ground ice .
Sticky surface .
This expression has been used to describe snow which sticks to sledge runners and skis. The degree of stickiness depends on temperature and the material involved. For instance, snow at thawing temperature sticks least to smooth metal, like steel shoeings, and most to unprocessed wood; but the lower the tem– perature the more likely snow is to stick to a steel shoeing (47). (See Rimey .)
Stone ice .
See Ground ice .
Storis [D and N].
Literally, The Great Ice, Scandinavian name for the heavier of the floes that crowd south from the Arctic Sea through the gap between northeastern Greenland and Spitsbergen. Some of this ice is of true peleocrystic nature but much of it consists of ordinary medium and heavy floes. Sometimes , unfortunately, Storis is used as a synonym for East Ice ( ^ 44;^ 47). (See Paleocrystic ice .)
Storm ice foot .
An ice foot along the shore produced by the breaking of a heavy swell or the freezing of wind-driven spray (57).
Strain crack .
A crack that occurs in sea ice under tension (57).
Stranded hummock .
See Pressure ice foot .

EA-I. Glossary

Stranded ice .
Heavy sea or glacier ice which has been stranded in shallow water (47). (See Grounded ice .)
Stranded ice foot .
Found on shelving beaches and due to stranded floes or to small bergs which are built upward by breaking swells and spray (57).
Stranded pressure ridge .
A pressure ridge, sometimes in relatively deep water, which has been heaped up, under the stress of onshore winds and currents, until the weight of the ice in the ridge which is above water has become enough to sink the lowest blocks in the ridge to where they touch the sea bottom. Ridges have been reported aground in 120 feet, west of Banks Island and elsewhere (47).
Stream ice or Streams ( Strip ice or Strips ).
Ice of any king drifting in strips that are very long in proportion to width. Under this head Bruce speaks of various kinds of ice, driven together by wind and current, which form into streams, miles in length, that lie at right angles to the wind. Stream joins stream and, in a storm, may increase into a formidable body of ice (8; 47).
Strip ice or Strips .
See Stream ice .
Subgelisol .
Zone of unfrozen ground below permafrost (9). (See Talik .)
Sublimation .
Process by which snow, ice, and frozen moisture pass from solid to vapor state, or vice versa, without passing through liquid condition (48).
Submerged ice foot .
A large mass of ice projecting under water in a horizontal direction from a glacier, iceberg, or floe (14; 51). (See Ram .)
Subpermafrost water ( Subwater ).
Groundwater in the unfrozen ground beneath the permafrost (31).
Subpolar glacier .
A glacier which, in its accumulation area, consists of

EA-I. Glossary

firn down to a depth of some 35 to 70 feet. In summer the temperatures permit surface melting accompanied by the forma– tion of fluid water (1). (See High-polar glacier, Polar glacier .)
Subsoil ice .
See Ground ice .
Subterranean ice .
See Ground ice .
Subwater .
See Subpermafrost water .
Suffosion complex, Suffosion convex, Suffosion knob .
See Frost mound .
Sugrob [R].
See Snowdrift .
Sun balls .
Sunshine-created bells of snow that roll down a slope. Seligman says that when the sun strikes a snow slope effectively the sur– face grains thaw, “become dense and heavy, slide downhill, collect more snow, and soon hundreds of sun-balls have formed and broken up the unblemished smoothness of the slope” (40; 47).
Sun crust .
Any snow which has been superficially melted by the sun and re– frozen into a crust (3; 40).
Sun pillar or streak .
An optical effect produced by the multiple reflection of sunlight or moonlight from the flat surfaces of hexagonal ice- crystal plates as they flutter to the earth (39).
Supercooled fog .
Ground fog occurring at temperatures below freezing that consists of floating droplets of liquid water. This may occur at temperatures as low as −38.5°C. (39).
Supercooled water .
Bulk water which cools below 0°C. and yet does not greeze. It has been cooled in the laboratory to −38.5°C. (39).
Superwater .
See Suprapermafrost water .
Supragelisol .
See Suprapermafrost layer .

EA-I. Glossary

Suprapermafrost layer ( Supragelisol, Suprazone ).
Zone above permafrost including active layer, talik, and pereletok (31).
Suprapermafrost water ( Superwater ).
Water in the ground above the perma– frost (31).
Suprazone .
See Suprapermafrost layer .
Surface hoar .
Crystals sublimed direct onto the snow surface (40).
Surficial swelling .
Swelling of ground, usually of small magnitude (2 to 4 in.), caused by the freezing of water derived from the at– mosphere which penetrates to a small depth below the surface (31).
Sweet-water ice .
Ice formed from fresh water of rivers and lakes. This ice is “so transparent that it is scarcely to be distinguished from water,” while salt-water ice is, in contrast, milky (36).
S’yom [R].
See Sem .
Szhat h ^ y^ i led [R].
See Pressure ice .

EA-I. Glossary

Tabetisol .
See Talik .
Tabular iceberg ( Barrier berg, Glace de socle [F], Iceberg tabulaire [F]).
A berg formed from the outer edge of antarctic shelf ice. Flat– topped bergs seen in the arctic seas and North Atlantic are sometimes called tabular (47). (See Shelf ice .)
Taele [S].
See Frozen ground .
Talik [R] ( Tabetisol ).
Layer of permanently unfrozen ground between active layer and permafrost, unfrozen ground within permafrost, or un– frozen ground beneath the permafrost (31; 48). (See Talik, temporary .)
Talik, island of .
See Island of talik .
Talik, pseudo island of .
See Pseudo island of talik .
Talik, temporary .
A layer of unfrozen ground between the active layer (sea– sonally frozen ground) and permafrost, whose unfrozen state is due to an occasio ^ n^ al warm winter or unusually early snowfall. It usually disappears with the return of the normal winter regime (31).
Talus ice .
Ice preserved by becoming mixed with or buried under talus. Such ice “falls near the dividing line set … for ground ice” (26).
Tangential adfreezing strength .
Resistance to force required to shear off an object which is frozen to some other object or to the ground and to overcome the friction along the plane of contact (31).
Taran [R].
See Ram .
Tartysh [R].
See Growler .
Taryn [R].
Land icings or “ice fields” which do not melt completely during the summer (31). (See Icing .)
Telemark snow or curst .
Hard snow or a crust thick enough not to be breakable

EA-I. Glossary

by skiers, but sufficiently softened on ^ ^ top to permit of turns being executed; an early stage of spring snow (40).
Telescoped ice .
See Rafted ice .
Temperate glacier .
A glacier whose substance consists of ice formed by rapid recrystallization of the annual surplus of solid precipita– tion. Throughout these glaciers the temperature corresponds to the melting point of the ice, except in the wintertime, when the top layer is frozen to a depth of not more than several feet (1).
Tented ice .
See Rafted ice, Tenting .
Tenting .
An occasionally observed second stage in behavior of ice under pressure, when a belt or expense of ice has bent upward until it broke near the top of the curve so that the pieces stand opposite each other, reminding of an A-tent or the first step in building a house of cards. A tenting formation is usually temporary, the “tent” breaking either to crumble into a pressure ridge, or one side to slip beneath the other, forming rafted ice (47). (See Bending, Hummocking, Rafting, Screwing .)
Terminal lake .
A body of water, usually static, at the terminus of an ice tongue (27a).
Terminus .
The lower extremity of a glacier, sometimes called the snout (14).
T e ^ ê^ te de femme [F].
See Niggerheads .
Thaw cycle .
The process and also the time interval, measured in years, through which a field or other area of old sea ice first gets thicker and thicker at practically all points in several years, and then begins to grow thinner in some parts while it continues

EA-I. Glossary

to thicken in others until one summer the process cuts the area into numerous very heavy floes which then can start drifting about independently (47). (See Thaw lake, Thaw river .)
Thaw lake .
The summer melting of sea ice, particularly if far from land among peleocrystic or other heavy fields, produces lakes which are at first only a few inches deep but which may get four or more feet deep toward the end of the season. The greater warming of liquid water than of ice by a direct sun enables these lakes not merely to deepen themselves but also to eat away their own edges or banks so as to grow in area. Thaw lakes may get to be several acres in size and are often connected by thaw rivers ; late in summer the network of these lakes and rivers may represent a quarter or more of the area of a field. Similar lakes may be formed upon large glaciers, particularly upon the inland ice of Greenland where they occur in a zone parallel to the nearest coast and intermediate between the ever-frozen interior and the crevassed marginal belt that has slopes too steep for the accumulation of thaw water in any quantity (47)., (See Frozen lakes, Thaw cycle , Thaw river .)
Thaw river .
Channel in heavy ice which carries an appreciable current and which connects one thaw lake with another or with a lead into which the lake drains (47). (See Thaw cycle .)
Thermal regime .
Heat flow through, into, and out of masses of snow, ice, and ground in relation to the properties of the masses and of their environment, particularly atmospheric conditions (3).

EA-I. Glossary

Thermokarst .
Uneven, irregular topography developed by the melting of ground ice. [: ] It designates a thermal action that produces land forms which are similar to the sinkholes, funnels, and caverns that are produced in limestone terrain by the solvent action of water. Thermokarst derives from the Greek thermo and German Karst (49).
Through glacier .
An ice tongue overlying a rock divide with glacial ice flowing both ways from the snow divide (27a).
Tiazhelyi led [R].
See Heavy ice .
Tidal or Tidewater glacier .
An ice tongue whose terminus enters the sea (27a).
Tidal platform ice foot .
Produced during the colder months of the year by the rise and fall of the tide (57). (See Ice foot .)
Tide crack .
The line of junction between an immovable ice foot and fast ice, the latter being subject to rise and fall of the tide (66).
Tjäle [S].
See Frozen ground .
Tongue .
A projection of the ice edge ^ ice edge ^ which may be several miles bng, caused, by wind and current. In the 19th century and until recently, it was a tonguelike projection extending under water in a horizontal direction from an iceberg or floe. This is now usually termed submerged ice foot ^ submerged ice foot ^ (27; 35; 51). (See Glacier tongue, Ram .)
Torfhuegel [G].
See Peat mound .
Toros [R], Torosistyi led [R].
See Hummock .
Torsion crack .
A result of screwing and shearing of the pack, producing a chain of pods or zigzag leads (57).
Trains de glace [F].
See Rafted ice .
Transection glacier .
A glacier that nearly or quite fills a valley system, overflowing the passes between the valleys (41).

EA-I. Glossary

Trebeis [G].
See Pack .
Tremor .
See Ice tremor .
Treschins [R].
See Crack .
Tributary glacier .
An ice tongue which enters and partly feeds a main glacier [: ] (27a).
Triple point .
The conditions of temperature and pressure under which certain substances, including water, may exist simultaneously as a vapor, liquid, and solid; in the case of water at atmospheric pressure, this point has a temperature of 0.01°F. (51a)
Trunk glacier .
A main glacial ice steam, generally receiving ice tributaries (27a).
Umbrella pillars .
See Mushroom pillars .
Unconformity iceberg .
An iceberg in transition, having part blue water-formed ice and part firn. Often contains many crevasses and silt bands (57).
Underground ice .
See Ground ice .
Ureis [G].
See Ground ice .

EA-I. Glossary

Vaage [D].
See Wake .
Vak [S].
See Wake .
Valley glacier ( Alpine glacier ).
A glacier which occupies the floor of a valley (14). (See Ice stream, Mountain glacier .)
Vechnaia merzlota [R].
See Permafrost .
V e ^ ê^ lage [F].
See Calving .
Verg al ^ la^ s [F].
See Glaze .
Vieille glace [F].
See Palecerystic ice .
Vindskavler [N].
See Skafl .
Vodianoe nebo [R].
See Water sky .
Vodianoi zabereg [R].
See Offshore water .
Vök [E].
See Wake .
Vzlom [R].
See Marginal crushing .

EA-I. Glossary

Wake ( Vaage [D], Vak [S], Vök [I] ^ .^
Generally, an open space of water sur– rounded by ice of any sort; especially, a space in lake or river ice kept open by a strong current or by a hot spring. In the days of sail a wake was often an open channel cut in ice, usually with saws, allowing a ship to pass through, towed or pushed by man power to avoid pressure or to attain a safer berth, as in a harbor for wintering. The term is still in English dialectic use (47).
Wall-sided glacier .
Glaciers of this type form tributaries to major drainage. They flow down the flanks of valleys along courses which are not incised in the slope (64).
Warping ( Ice warping ).
Pulling a ship ahead among ice by taking an ice anchor “ashore” on a floe and then advancing the ship by the use of ropes and pulleys (4; 47).
Wasserchatten [G.].
See Sky map, Water sky .
Wastage .
See Ablation .
Water, capillary, combined, free, gravity, ground-, confined, intraperma frost, open, pellicular, supercooled, superpermafrost, supraperma frost .
See Capillary water, Combined water, etc.
Water of dilation .
Water in excess of water of saturation held by the ground in an inflated state (water of supersaturation) (31).
Water sky ( Ciel d’eau [F], Vodiance nebo [R], Wasserchatten [G]).
See Sky map .
Water smoke .
See Frost smoke .
Water snow .
Snow which has become granulated so that, for its bulk, it con– tains more water than ordinary snow. The term is used in connection

EA-I. Glossary

with winter camp cooking; the cook or water provider commonly finds this snow by digging down through more fluffy, newer snow which covers it. Sometimes called cooking snow; not quite the same as anniu (12; 47).
Weathered ice .
See Moutonn e ^ é^ e .
Weathered iceberg .
Irregular in shape due to an advanced stage of ablation. They may be overturned bergs (57). (See Horned iceberg .)
Weight crack .
See Hinge crack .
West Ice .
The western and most tightly packed portion of the Baffin Bay Pack , the ice that is moving south along the east coast of Baffin Island. To Norwegians, however, West Ice is the ice off eastern Greenland (33; 41; 51). (See Middle Pack, North Water .)
Wet snow .
Snow containing liquid water (3). (See Snow swamp .)
Whiteout .
An optical phenomenon occasioned by the presence of air-borne particles in the form of snow, tiny ice crystals, or supercooled water droplets, which obscures the sun sufficiently to eliminate contrast in a snow-covered terrain (39).
Wildschnee [G].
See Wild snow .
Wild snow .
A name suggested by Seligman for snow which has fallen at say −15°C. and which, in perfectly windless conditions, will lie in unbelievably loose fashion with just here and there the ends of the plumes of the flakes touching. Such snow is of great light– ness, amounting to an almost impalpable fluffiness, and flows off a shovel like water; it is called neige sauvage or Wildsch ^ n^ ee by the Swiss (40).

EA-I. Glossary

Wind crust .
Wind crust is generally found as a very hard snow formation resulting from wind packing ^ wind packing ^ when no drift and deposition are taking place. It is commonly firmly anchored to the ground or to an ice or hard snow surface. It may also occur, like wind slab, as a crust capable of being broken by the skier’s weight, but its essential difference from wind slab is that, even if broken, the breakage is local and the fractures neither spread nor does the whole area break up into blocks. Wind crust, there– fore, is normally a safe formation while wind slab is normally dangerous (40; 64).
Window .
[: ] See Polynia, river .
Window frost .
That form of window hoar ^ window hoar ^ , which is thought of chiefly in relation to the figures that appear on its surface. The Weather Glossary of the U.S. Weather Bureau says that “Bentley names eleven types of window frost, all presenting beautiful forms vary– ing from those like granules to these resembling tree ferns.” (53a).
Window hoar .
Crystals sublimed onto a cooled glass surface, usually inside a room when the weather is cold outside. In cold districts, such as Manitoba, Minnesota, or interior Siberia, when double windows are not used, the hoar turns partly into ice, which may become a half inch or more in thickness even if the room is comfortably warm; but hoar forms on the inside of this ice, except when the room heat is increased to where thawing starts (40; 47).
Window ice .
Ice that develops within a very thin film of liquid water on window panes inside warm rooms. This is ordinary ice crystallization;

EA-I. Glossary

later there may develop on this window ice the fernlike and other figures described under window frost (53a).
Wind packing .
The pounding of snow into dense drifts ( skaflar, zastrugi ) by wind action. It is this pounding or compaction which makes snow– drifts suitable for slicing with a knife into blocks for snow– house construction. The wind-compacted snowdrifts get harder and denser as they have time for setting (40). (See Wind slab .)
Wind scoops .
The saucer-like or bowl-like hollows in snow around medium– size objects after a blizzard — around trees, stand-up rocks, small houses. Seligman says that under “a subsidiary set of conditions operating in close proximity to obstacles, and there, either through an acceleration of the wind stream, which may be due to funnelling … or to the obstruction causing an upward spiral eddy, snow is carried back into the main air stream and removed ”(40; 47).
Wind slab .
A snow deposit which has been packed tough, half-hard, or hard by wind when snowdrift and deposition are taking place. It may lie above hard snow, soft snow, or the ground (40). (See Wind packing .)
Winter ice ( Godovoi led [R], Odnoletnii led [R], Zimnii led [R]).
Ice frozen during the last autu ^ m^ n, winter, or spring and, therefore, not more than one year old (47).
Working the ice .
A ship is said to work ice when it makes its way with dif– ficulty through scattered ice of less than field size. In sailing days this was done by pushing floes aside under press of sail, by towing the ship behind rowboats, by kedging with ropes fastened to floes in advance of the ship. Under steam power, working refers to progress through ice by methods less strenuous than bucking or breaking (47; 57).

EA-I. Glossary

Young ice ( Jeune glace [F], Molodik [R], Molodoi led [R]).
Newly frozen level ice approximately 2 to 8 inches thick. At 2 inches sea ice is wet with brine, and snow falling on it dissolves even in below zero Fahrenheit temperatures; at 8 inches it is slightly damp with saturation-point brine. Up to 3 or 4 inches young ice is neither hard nor tough. A slab of 2-inch freshwater ice will splinter like glass if dropped on a rock but 2-inch or even 3-inch sea ice will splash like ice cream. When seen in contrast with snowy older ice the young ice looks black and is sometimes called black ice (47). (See Cream ice .)
Yowling .
See Ice yowling .
Zabereg [R].
See Fast ice .
Zeboi [R].
See Ice jam .
Zalivnyi led [R].
See Bay ice .
Zastruga, Za ^ s^ trugi [R].
Wavelike ridge of snow beaten hard by wind action (63).
Zator [R].
See Ice cliff .
Zero curtain .
A layer of ground between active layer and permafrost where zero temperature ( ^ 0^ °C.) lasts a considerable period of time (as long as 115 days a year) during the freezing and thawing of over– lying ground (31).
Zimnii led [R].
See Winter ice .

EA-I. Glossary

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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EA-I. Glossary

13. Estifeev, A.M. “Opyt postroeniia prakticheskoi klassifikatsii i terminologii glavneishikh ledovykh obrazovanii.” (An attempt at establishing a practical classification and terminology of the most important ice formations.) Leningrad, Nauchno-Issledovatelskii Institut Gidrotekhniki, Izvestia, vol.12, pp.203-209, 1934.

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19a. ----. Personal communication, January 17, 1951.

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EA-I. Glossary

26. Leffingwell, Ernest de Koven. The Canning River Region, Northern Alaska . Wash., D.C., G.P.O., 1919. U.S.Geol.Surv. Prof. Pap. 109.

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27a. Martin, Lawrence. Personal communication, January 1951.

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33. Nutt, D.C. Personal communication, Mar. 6, 1950.

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34a. Olkhine, Eugenia. Research associate, Stefansson Library.

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39. Schaefer, V.J. Interview, June 10, 1950.

EA-I. Glossary

40. Seligman, G. Snow Structure and Ski Fields. Being an Account of Snow and Ice Forms Met with in Nature and a Study on Avalanches and Snowcraft. London, Macmillan, 1936.

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51a. Taylor, Andrew. Personal communication, March 20, 1951.

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54. Transehe, N.A. “The ice cover of the Arctic Sea, with a genetic classi– fication of sea ice,” Joerg, W.L.G., ed. Problems of Polar Research. A Series of Papers by Thirty-One Authors. N.Y., American Geographical Society, 1928, pp.91-123. Its Spec . Publ. no.7.

EA-I. Glossary

55. U.S. Army Air Forces. Weather Information Branch. Glossary of Ice Terms with Russian Equivalents. June, 1943. Report no. 386.

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U.S. Weather Bureau. See Thiessen, A.H.

60. Ushakov, D.N. Tolkovyi Slovar Russkogo Iazyka. (Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language.) Moscow, Gosizdat Inostrannykh i Natsionalnykh Slovarei, 1935-40. 4 vols. American Council of Learned Societies. Reprints. Russian Series no.2.

61. Victor, Paul-Emile. Personal communication, Feb., 1950.

62. Washburn, A.L. Personal communication, May 4, 1950.

63. Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English language. 2d ed. unabridged. Springfield, mass., Merriam, 1949.

64. Wood, W.A. Personal communication, June 5, 1950.

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66. Wordie, J.M. and Roberts, B.B. “Sea ice: terminology, formation and movement,” Polar Rec ., vol. 4, no. 27, pp. 126-33, Jan., 1944.

67. Wright, C.S. and Priestley, R.E. Glaciology. London, Harrison, 1922. British (Terra Nova) Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913. “Sea ice definitions,” pp. 393-94.

68. Zubov, N.N. V Tsentre Arktiki (In the Center of the Arctic). Leningrad, Moscow, Glavsevmorput, 1940.

69. ----. Ldy Arktiki (Ice of the Arctic). Moscow, Glavsevmorput, 1945, pp.255-56

70. Zukriegel, Josef. “Cryologia Maris,” Prague. Universita Karlova. Institut Geographique. Travaux Geographiques Tcheques no.15, 1935.

EA-I. Glossary

ADDENDUM TO BIBLIOGRAPHY

71. Bucher, Edwin. “Contributions to the Theoretical Foundation of Avalanche Defense Construction,” Contributions to Swiss Geology, Geo– Technical Series, Hydrology, Part 6, Berne, 1948.

72. de Quervain, M.R. Snow and Ice Problems in Canada and the U.S.A. Tech– nical Report No. 5, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, 1950.

73. Klein, G.J., Pearce, D.C., and Gold, L.W. Method of Measuring the Sig– nificant Characteristics of a Snow Cover. Technical Memorandum No. 18, Associate Committee of Soil and Snow Mechanics, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, 1950.

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