Displacement of ice floes and other ice features resulting from the impact of wind and currentsincluding tidal currents and of forces transferred through the ice cover from other regions. The drift di
rection and velocity of a specific ice feature or ice cover area depends at any specific moment on themagnitude of the external forces, on the feature
The boundary at any given time between open water and sea, river or lake ice of any kind, whether drifting or fast. An ice edge may be termed compacted when it is clear-cut, or open when it forms the
indefinite edge of an area of dispersed ice.
The boundary at any given time between open water and sea, river or lake ice of any kind, whether drifting or fast; may be termed compacted when it is clear-cut, or open when it forms the indefinite e
dge of an area of dispersed ice.
The demarcation between the open sea and sea ice of any kind, whether fast (fast ice edge) or drifting. The drift ice edge may be termed compacted or diffuse.
A unit, in full the 'metre [of] ice equivalent', that is an extension of the SI for describing glacier mass in specific units as the thickness (in 'm ice eq.') Of an equal mass having the density of i
ce. Ice equivalents can be converted to kg m-2 by multiplying by the density of ice, and to water equivalents (m w. E.) By multiplying by the density of ice and dividing by the density of water (with sufficient accuracy, 1000 kg m-3).
Closed ice cover over a steep mountain side; Entirely crevassed with many seracs; Break above a cliff, with reconstitution to a cohering ice mass below (WGMS, 1970); A glacier with a considerable drop
in the longitudinal profile at one point causing heavily broken surface (WGMS, 1977)
Part of a glacier where the ice flows over a bed with a very steep gradient, typically at a higher rate than both above and below. As a result the surface is fractured and heavily crevassed. In a rive
r system, this would be a waterfall.