SINCE 1828
ice cap
nounDefinition of ice cap
1
: an ice bag shaped to the head
2
: a cover of perennial ice and snow
specifically
: a glacier forming on an extensive area of relatively level land and flowing outward from its center
Examples of ice cap in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Rising temperatures caused by human activities are melting ice caps and pushing sea levels up globally, but there’s more. — Ephrat Livni, Quartz, "On World Oceans Day, the seas are awash in plastic pollution," 8 June 2019 But a basic backyard telescope will reveal details of its surface that are harder to see at other times, like its polar ice caps. — Brian Resnick, Vox, "Mars will be extra big and bright in the sky this weekend. Take a look for yourself.," 25 July 2018 Today, a team of Italian scientists announced evidence that Mars has lakes of liquid water under its polar ice caps. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "Possible lake spotted under a polar ice cap—on Mars," 25 July 2018 Scientists call them the tropical glaciers, ice caps found in places as warm as Ecuador and Indonesia, where high mountain peaks have shielded them for thousands of years from the heat of the jungle below. — Nicholas Casey, New York Times, "A Lifetime in Peru’s Glaciers, Slowly Melting Away," 26 Jan. 2018 Calculations have suggested that these conditions may be met at the Martian poles, where large ice caps composed of both water and frozen carbon dioxide exist. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "Possible lake spotted under a polar ice cap—on Mars," 25 July 2018 Britain has billed the exercise as an opportunity for its submariners to learn and develop skills to operate under the Arctic ice cap. — Anchorage Daily News, "Russia claims first post-Soviet military training flight across Arctic to North America," 29 Mar. 2018 Since the 1990s, researchers have realized that the lead pollution produced by smelters across the Empire drifted 2,800 miles and left traces in peat bogs in Scotland and the Faroe Islands and in ice cores from Greenland’s ice cap. — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, "Greenland’s Ice Provides a Year-By-Year Account of the Roman Empire’s Economy," 16 May 2018 The Red Planet’s polar ice caps, for example, grow in the winter and shrink in the summer. — Shannon Hall, New York Times, "Never Mind the Summer Heat: Earth Is at Its Greatest Distance From the Sun," 5 July 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ice cap.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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