Melting Glacier

Meltwater

Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring when snow packs and frozen rivers melt with rising temperatures, and in the ablation zone of glaciers where the rate of snow cover is reducing. Meltwater can be produced during volcanic eruptions, in a similar way in which the more dangerous lahars form. It can also be produced by the heat generated by the flow itself.

Melting

Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. This occurs when the internal energy of the solid increases, typically by the application of heat or pressure, which increases the substance's temperature to the melting point. At the melting point, the ordering of ions or molecules in the solid breaks down to a less ordered state, and the solid melts to become a liquid.

Glacier

A glacier is a persistent body of natural ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by gravity, undergoing both ductile and brittle deformation, and acquiring distinguishing surface features, such as crevasses and seracs. As a glacier moves, it abrades underlying rock and debris to create glacial landforms, such as cirques, moraines, and fjords. Although a glacier may flow into a body of water, and can include ice shelves and ice tongues, it originates only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of freezing bodies of water.

melting

Adjective

1. Which is melting, dissolving or liquefying.
2. Given over to strong emotion; tender; aroused; emotional, tearful.

Verb

1. present participle and gerund of melt

glacier

Noun

1. A large body of ice which flows under its own mass, usually downhill.
2. An area of a mountain where snow is present year-round.