Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Glacial |
GlacialAdjective1. Relating to or derived from a glacier; "glacial deposit". 2. Devoid of warmth and cordiality; expressive of unfriendliness or disdain; "a frigid greeting"; "got a frosty reception"; "a frozen look on their faces"; "a glacial handshake"; "icy stare"; "wintry smile". 3. Extremely cold; "an arctic climate"; "let's get inside; I'm freezing"; "a frigid day"; "gelid waters of the North Atlantic"; "glacial winds"; "icy hands"; "polar weather". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "glacial" was first used: 1656. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Mining | A. Of or relating to the presence and activities of ice or glaciers, as glacial erosion b. Pertaining to distinctive features and materials produced by or derived from glaciers and ice sheets, as glacial lakes c. Pertaining to an ice age or region of glaciation d. Suggestive of the extremely slow movement of glaciers e. Used loosely as descriptive or suggestive of ice, or of below-freezingtemperature. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A glacier is a large, long-lasting flow of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity. The glacier fringe is the area where the glacier has recently melted. There are two main types of glaciers: alpine glaciers, which are found in mountain terrains, and continental glaciers, which are associated with ice ages and can cover large areas of continents. Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, and second only to the oceans as the largest reservoir of total water. Glaciers are found on every continent except Australia. This article will concentrate on Alpine glaciers, but most of the concepts also apply to continental glaciers except the scale is quite different.
Austria's longest glacier, the Pasterze, winds its 8 km (5 mile) route at the foot of Austria's highest mountain, the Grossglockner.
Larger versionA number of geologic features are associated with glaciers, including moraines that form from glacially transported rocks and debris at the terminus of the glacier; distinctive U-shaped valleyss ; and cirques (cwms) at their heads.
The upper part of a glacier that receives most of the snowfall is called the zone of accumulation. The snowfall here is sufficiently heavy to exert a downward force and cause deep erosion of rock in this area, often leaving a bowl or amphitheater-shaped depression called a cirque. On the opposite end of the glacier, at its foot or terminal end, is the zone of deposition (also called the zone of wastage or the zone of ablation) where upward and lateral forces predominate and deposition of sediment occurs. Between these two zones is the line of equilibrium where the downward erosive forces of the zone of accumulation and the upward deposition forces of the zone of deposition cancel. Erosive lateral forces are not canceled; therefore, glaciers turn v-shaped river-carved valleys into u-shaped glacial valleys.
Glacial moraines are formed from the deposition of material from a glacier and are exposed after the glacier has retreated. These features usually appear as linear mounds of till, which is a poorly-sorted mixture of rock, gravel and boulders that are within a matrix of a fine powdery material. Terminal or end moraines are formed at the foot or terminal end of a glacier, lateral moraines are formed on the sides of the glacier, and medial moraines are formed down the center. Less obvious is the ground moraine which often blankets the surface underneath much of the glacier downslope from the line of equilibrium. Other features formed by glacial deposition include distinctive streamlined hills known as drumlins, and long snake-like ridges formed by streambeds under glaciers, known as eskers. Glacial meltwaters contain rock flour, an extremely fine powder ground from the underlying rock by the glacier's movement.
The Upper Grindelwald Glacier and the Schreckhorn, at Grindelwald, Switzerland.
Larger versionSo-called "stoss and lee erosional features" are formed by glaciers and show the direction of its movement. Long linear features that follow the direction of movement are called glacial striations and divots in the rock are called chatter marks. These two features are both left on the surfaces of stationary rock that were once under a glacier and were formed when loose rocks and boulders in the ice were transported over the rock surface. Transport of fine-grained material within a glacier can smooth or polish the surface of rocks, leading to what geologists call glacial polish. Glacial erratics are rounded boulders that were left by a melting glacier and are often seen perched precariously on exposed rock faces after glacial retreat.
Some glaciers are quite small, while others may be tens of kilometers in length. Today, they are found on very high mountains in equatorial and mid-latitude regions and progressively lower as one approaches the poles. Greenland and Antarctica are heavily glaciated, to the point of being almost entirely covered by ice. Glaciation of this extent is called continental glaciation.
The downstream end of continental glaciers often flows into the sea. As the ice reaches the ocean, it breaks off, forming icebergs. Glaciers are really rivers of ice that move slowly downhill. Even in very cold climates, there may be unglaciated areas, which receive too little precipitation to form permanent ice.
The snow from which glaciers form is subject to repeated freezing and thawing, permitting the formation of a form of granular ice called nevé. Under the pressure of the layers of ice and snow above it, this granular ice fuses into solid glacial ice. Glacial ice contains minute air bubbles as a result, giving it a distinctive blue tint due to Rayleigh scattering. The lower layers of glacial ice flow and deform plastically under this pressure, allowing the glacier as a whole to move slowly like a viscous fluid. Glaciers do not need a slope to flow, being driven by the continuing accumulation of new snow at their source. The upper layers of glaciers are more brittle, and often form deep cracks known as crevasses as they flex. These crevasses make travel over glaciers a risky proposition. Glacial meltwaters flow throughout and underneath glaciers, carving channels in the ice similar to caves in rock and also helping to lubricate the glacier's movement.
During ice ages, continental glaciers may be as much as 1500 meters thick. A more extreme instance of glacial growth may have occurred during the Snowball Earth period. In the past several centuries the Earth's glaciers have generally been retreating, often dramatically.
See also: West Antarctica
External links
- 2003-08-15 Scientists Rewrite Laws Of Glacial Erosion
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Glacier."
Synonyms: GlacialSynonyms: arctic (adj), freezing (adj), frigid (adj), frosty (adj), frozen (adj), gelid (adj), icy (adj), polar (adj), wintry (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Cold | Icy, glacial, frosty, freezing, pruinose, wintry, brumal, hibernal, boreal, arctic, Siberian, hyemal; hyperborean, hyperboreal; icebound; frozen out. |
Slowness | Phrase: dum Roma deliberat Saguntum perit; at a glacial pace. |
Adjective: slow, slack; tardy; dilatory; (inactive); gentle, easy; leisurely; deliberate, gradual; insensible, imperceptible; glacial, languid, sluggish, slow paced, tardigrade, snail-like; creeping; Verb: reptatorial. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Glacial |
| English words defined with "glacial": Bowlder clay ♦ Champlain period ♦ Diluvium, Drift epoch, drumlin ♦ frigid, frosty, frozen ♦ glaciated, Glacier theory ♦ ice age, icy ♦ Metaphosphoric ♦ Paleocrystic, Preglacial ♦ Sheepback ♦ wintry. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "glacial": drift peat, drill ahead ♦ erratic block, erratic boulder ♦ glacial acetic acid, glacial erratic, glacial rebound, glaciated trough, glaciated valley ♦ historical geology ♦ Jökulhlaup ♦ land forms ♦ outwash ♦ pluvial lake ♦ regolith ♦ stray block, superficial deposit, superficial geology, surficial deposit ♦ tillite, tube mill ♦ Volcanic landslide. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Glacial" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (bitter, bleak, chill, freezing, frosty, gelid, glacial, icy, piercing, wintry), Portuguese (chill, freezing, frigid, frosty, gelid, glacial, icy, winterly, wintry), Romanian (chill, chilly, cold, damp, frigid, frigidly, frosty, gelid, glacial, icily, icy), Spanish (arctic, bitter, chilly, freezing, frosty, glacial, icy, stony), Swedish (glacial). |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | L. S. Hubbard at plane table in glacial area Off of SURVEYOR. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Crystal clear glacial ice. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Pebble Beach on 700 Acre Island. This beach has been formed from glacial material while the Philbrook Cove Beach, right around the corner, was formed from erosion of slate. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | An abrupt change in water characteristics at the point where glacial melt-water meets oceanic water. In Saginaw Channel. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | Glacier Bay - glacial views. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | Heading up the glacial valley from Minnesota Camp to Byrd Station. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | A rugged glacial sculpted valley near McMurdo Station. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | An NRCS employee takes water samples from a stream in Glacial National Park, MT. NRCS and the National Park Service have a cooperative agreement to study soil and water erosion in the National Parks. [Slide 97CS3039]. Credit: Bob Nichols. |
 | Classic glacial valley in Kiger Gorge, Steens Mountain, Oregon. Credit: Mark Armstrong. |  | Little Blitzen Gorge, a glacial valley on Steens Mountain in Southeast Oregon. Credit: Mark Armstrong. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Glacial valley" by Tom Haynes Commentary: "Hmmm - all white and blue..." | "Plains, mountains" by Mathew Patterson Commentary: "Snow covered mountains above a glacial plain in the south of New Zealand. Very "Lord of the Rings"." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Again, action has been glacial. (references) | |
Economic History | Lithuania | Terrain: Lithuania's fertile, central lowland plains are separated by hilly uplands created by glacial drift. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Glacial" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.26% of the time. "Glacial" is used about 269 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.26% | 267 | 18,030 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.74% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 269 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "glacial": at a glacial pace ♦ glacial acetic ♦ glacial acetic acid ♦ Glacial acid ♦ glacial boulder ♦ Glacial drift ♦ glacial epoch ♦ glacial era ♦ glacial erratic ♦ Glacial hypothesis ♦ glacial look ♦ glacial period ♦ Glacial phenol ♦ glacial phosphoric acid ♦ glacial scratch ♦ glacial scratching ♦ glacial sea ♦ glacial stage ♦ glacial stria ♦ glacial striation ♦ Glacial theory. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "glacial": glacial-interglacial, glacial-to-interglacial. | |
Ending with "glacial": late-glacial, mid-post-glacial, post-glacial. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "glacial"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | prej akulli (ice), i ftohtë (algid, aloof, bleak, bloodless, brumous, chilly, cold, cold-livered, cool, cool blooded, crimpy, distant, frigid, frosty, frozen, gelid, insensitive, offish, Parky, sexless, stilted, stolid, stony, winterly, wintry), i akullt (chill, cold-hearted, cutting, freezing, frigid, frozen, gelid, ice, icy). (various references) | |
Arabic | مقرس, مثلج (frosted, frosty, frozen, glace, ice cold, iced, icy, water ice), قر (fester), جليدي (icy), شبيه بالجليد, بارد (bleak, boring, chilly, cold, coldish, cool, coolly, dank, distant, flat, meaningless, phlegmatic, phlegmatical, raw, silly, unfriendly, wintry). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | кристализирал, ледников (ice), леден (algid, freezing, frozen, gelid, ice, ice cold, icy). (various references) | |
Chinese | 冰河 (pertaining to ice age). (various references) | |
Czech | glaciální, mrazivý (chilly, freezing, frigid, frosty, icy, nippy, winterly, wintry), ledový (arctic, gelid, ice cold, iced, icy, stone cold, stony, winterly, wintry). (various references) | |
Danish | glaciation (glacial epoch, glacial stage, glaciation, ice flood), glacialtid (drift epoch, glacial epoch, glacial period, ice age), vandreblok (erratic, erratic block, erratic boulder, glacial erratic, stray block), skurestribe (drift scratch, glacial scratch, glacial scratching, glacial stria, glacial striation), moraeneler (an unstratified glacial deposit of clay, and boulders covering part of the rock surface in those regions which were glaciated during the ice age ;a moraine occurring at the bottom of a glacier, and pushed along over its bed.When the glacier melts, consisting of material frozen in the bottom, glacial drift, gravel, ground moraine, sand, silt, this material is usually deposited in a relatively thin sheet over the area occupied by the glacier, till, till sheet), istid (drift epoch, glacial epoch, glacial period, ice age), iseddikesyre (glacial acetic acid), iseddike (glacial acetic acid), erratisk blok (erratic, erratic block, erratic boulder, glacial erratic, stray block), bundmoræne (an unstratified glacial deposit of clay, and boulders covering part of the rock surface in those regions which were glaciated during the ice age ;a moraine occurring at the bottom of a glacier, and pushed along over its bed.When the glacier melts, consisting of material frozen in the bottom, glacial drift, gravel, ground moraine, sand, silt, this material is usually deposited in a relatively thin sheet over the area occupied by the glacier, till, till sheet). (various references) | |
Dutch | grondmorene (an unstratified glacial deposit of clay, and boulders covering part of the rock surface in those regions which were glaciated during the ice age ;a moraine occurring at the bottom of a glacier, and pushed along over its bed.When the glacier melts, consisting of material frozen in the bottom, glacial drift, gravel, ground moraine, sand, silt, this material is usually deposited in a relatively thin sheet over the area occupied by the glacier, till, till sheet), gletsjerkras (drift scratch, glacial scratch, glacial scratching, glacial stria, glacial striation), glaciatie (drift epoch, glacial epoch, glacial period, glacial stage, glaciation, ice age, ice flood), zwerfsteen (erratic, erratic block, erratic boulder, glacial erratic, stray block), zwerfkei (erratic, erratic block, erratic boulder, glacial erratic, stray block), vergletsjering (glacial epoch, glacial stage, glaciation, ice flood), morenen afzetting (an unstratified glacial deposit of clay, and boulders covering part of the rock surface in those regions which were glaciated during the ice age ;a moraine occurring at the bottom of a glacier, and pushed along over its bed.When the glacier melts, consisting of material frozen in the bottom, glacial drift, gravel, ground moraine, sand, silt, this material is usually deposited in a relatively thin sheet over the area occupied by the glacier, till, till sheet), keileem (an unstratified glacial deposit of clay, and boulders covering part of the rock surface in those regions which were glaciated during the ice age ;a moraine occurring at the bottom of a glacier, and pushed along over its bed.When the glacier melts, consisting of material frozen in the bottom, glacial drift, gravel, ground moraine, sand, silt, this material is usually deposited in a relatively thin sheet over the area occupied by the glacier, till, till sheet), ijstijd (drift epoch, glacial epoch, glacial period, glacial stage, glaciation, ice age, ice flood), ijsazijn (glacial acetic acid), bodemmorene (an unstratified glacial deposit of clay, and boulders covering part of the rock surface in those regions which were glaciated during the ice age ;a moraine occurring at the bottom of a glacier, and pushed along over its bed.When the glacier melts, consisting of material frozen in the bottom, glacial drift, gravel, ground moraine, sand, silt, this material is usually deposited in a relatively thin sheet over the area occupied by the glacier, till, till sheet). (various references) | |
Farsi | یخبندان . (various references) | |
Finnish | jääkautinen (diluvial). (various references) | |
French | glacial, glacé (glace, glazed frost). (various references) | |
German | eisig (chilling, freezing, frigid, frosty, glacially, icily, icy). (various references) | |
Greek | παγετώδησ (icy). (various references) | |
Hebrew | קפוא (congealed, frigid, frozen, iced), קרחי (icy), קרחוני. (various references) | |
Hungarian | jeges (chill, frigid, frore, frosty, gelid, iced, icy). (various references) | |
Indonesian | menggletser. (various references) | |
Italian | glaciale (frigid). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 氷酢酸 (glacial acetic acid), 氷蝕 (glacial scouring), 氷醋酸 (glacial acetic acid), 氷河時代 (glacial period), 氷河期 (glacial period). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ひょうがじだい (glacial period), ひょうがき (glacial period), ひょうしょく (glacial scouring), ひょうさくさん (glacial acetic acid). (various references) | |
Manx | rioee, glonnoil (glassy), fanntagh (keen, keen of wind, nippy, slashing). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | acialglay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | glacial (chill, freezing, frigid, frosty, gelid, icy, winterly, wintry), glaciário. (various references) | |
Romanian | glaciar, glacial (chill, chilly, cold, damp, frigid, frigidly, frosty, gelid, icily, icy), geros (frosty, nippy), sec (bald, barren, cold, dried up, drily, dry, dull, empty, harshly, hollow, literal, stupid, useless), rece (apathetically, bleak, chill, chilly, cold, cold blooded, cold-hearted, coldly, cool, crisp, damp, dank, distant, freezingly, frigid, frosty, hard-hearted, icily, icy, immovable, impersonal, inhuman, nippy, reserved, snappy, stale, stiff, stony, wintery, wintry), neprietenos (chill, hostile, manner, unfriendly), de gheaţã (icy). (various references) | |
Russian | ледниковый. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | ledeni. (various references) | |
Spanish | glacial (arctic, bitter, chilly, freezing, frosty, icy, stony). (various references) | |
Swedish | glacial, glaciär-, kylig (chill, chilly, coldish, cool, frigid, frosty, Parky, wintry), istids-, is- (icy). (various references) | |
Thai | ซึ่งเป็นน้ำแข็ง. (various references) | |
Turkish | buzul (glacier, growler, ice field), buzsu, buz (ice). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | студений (chill), крижаний (arctic, gelid, ice cold, icy, winterly, wintry), гляціальний, льодовиковий (icy). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | lạnh buốt lạnh lùng. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | glacialis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "glacial": glacially. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "glacial": interglacial, postglacial, subglacial. (additional references) | |
Words containing "glacial": interglacials, subglacially. (additional references) | |
| |
"Glacial" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: gacela, Gacia, Galica, Galicao, Gallacio, glacia, glaciali, glacials, glacian, glaciel, glacien, Glascol, Glaucia, gloacial, glocal, gracial, Tlaxcala. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "glacial" (pronounced glā"shul) |
| 5 | -l ā" sh u l | palatial. |
| 4 | -ā" sh u l | biracial, facial, spatial, interracial, multiracial, nonracial, racial. |
| 3 | -sh u l | inertial, antisocial, artificial, beneficial, bushel, commercial, confidential, controversial, crucial, essential, experiential, financial, impartial, special, superficial, infomercial, initial, interprovincial, judicial, jurisprudential, Marshal, Marshall, martial, noncommercial, noncontroversial, nonfinancial, nonresidential, official, partial, Paschal, potential, prejudicial, prenuptial, provincial, quintessential, sacrificial, social, uncontroversial, unofficial. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-g-i-l-l" | |
-1 letter: gallic, laical. | |
-2 letters: algal, calla, glial, lilac. | |
-3 letters: alga, call, clag, gala, gall, gill, glia, laic. | |
-4 letters: aal, aga, ail, ala, all, cig, gal, ill, lac, lag. | |
-5 letters: aa, ag, ai, al, la, li. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-c-g-i-l-l" | |
+1 letter: alogical, gallican. | |
+2 letters: algicidal, angelical, caballing, canalling, elegiacal, galenical, glacially, magically, scagliola. | |
+3 letters: allegiance, allocating, alogically, analogical, catcalling, dialogical, galenicals, scagliolas, subglacial, tragically. | |
+4 letters: abiological, algolagniac, algological, allegiances, allegorical, allographic, allowancing, angelically, antilogical, axiological, calculating, calligraphy, callipygian, caracolling, elegiacally, evangelical, gametically, graphically, organically, placatingly, plagioclase, postglacial, scandalling, vacillating. | |
+5 letters: agricultural, algolagniacs, anagogically, analogically, anthological, argillaceous, astrological, audiological, blackballing, blackmailing, calligrapher, calligraphic, cantillating, dialogically, dogmatically, evangelicals, extralogical, gallinaceous, galvanically, genealogical, gigantically, hagiological, interglacial, karyological, magnetically, magnifically, malacologies, malacologist, oligarchical, pathological, plagioclases, radiological, reallocating, scatological, subglacially, tautological. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
