glacier

gla·cier

noun \ˈglā-shər also -zhər, especially British ˈgla-sē-ər or ˈglā-sē-\

: a very large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope or valley or over a wide area of land

Full Definition of GLACIER

:  a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface

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Origin of GLACIER

French, from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal), from glace ice, from Latin glacies; akin to Latin gelu frost — more at cold

First Known Use: 1744

Other Geology Terms

anthracite, boulder, cwm, erratic, igneous, intrusive, mesa, sedimentary, silt, swale

Rhymes with GLACIER

rasure

glacier

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Large mass of perennial ice that forms on land through the recrystallization of snow and that moves forward under its own weight. The term ice sheet is commonly applied to a glacier that occupies an extensive tract of relatively level land and that flows from the centre outward. Glaciers occur where snowfall in winter exceeds melting in summer, conditions that prevail only in high mountain areas and polar regions. Glaciers occupy about 11% of the Earth's land surface but hold roughly three-fourths of its fresh water; 99% of glacier ice lies in Antarctica and Greenland.