Iceberg

Alternative definitions (12), class: vernacular (0)
Term: Iceberg
Definition: A piece of ice that has broken off from the end of a glacier that terminates in water.  NSIDCCryosphere 

A block of ice that has broken or calved from the face of a glacier and is floating in a body of marine of fresh water. Alaskan icebergs rarely exceed 500 feet in maximum dimension. In order of increasing size, the following names are used: Brash Ice, Growler, Bergy Bit.

A massive piece of ice of greatly varying shape, more than 5m above sea-level, which has broken away from a glacier (or an ice shelf), and which may be afloat or aground. Icebergs may be described as tabular, dome-shaped, sloping, pinnacled, weathered or glacier bergs (an irregularly shaped iceberg). Icebergs are not sea ice. They originate from the ice mass of the Antarctic continent that has accumulated over many thousands of years. When they melt they add fresh water to the ocean.  ASPECT2012 

A massive piece of ice of greatly varying shape, more than 16 ft (5 m) above sea level, which has broken away from a glacier, and which may be afloat or aground. Icebergs may be described as tabular, dome-shaped, sloping, pinnacled, weathered, or glacier bergs.  WMOSeaIce 

A massive piece of ice of varying shape, protruding more than 5 m above sea-level, which has broken away from a glacier or an ice shelf, and which may be afloat or aground. Icebergs by their external look may be subdivided into tabular, dome-shaped, sloping and rounded bergs.  Bushuyev 

A piece of a glacier which has broken off and is floating in the sea.  NOAA-NWS 

Sea ice terminology. A large, massive piece of floating or stranded glacier ice of any shape detached (calved) from the front of a glacier into a body of water. An iceberg extends more than 5 m above sea level and has the greater part of its mass (4/5 to 8/9) below sea level.  ECCCanada 

Large mass of floating or stranded ice, more than 5 metres above the water surface, which has broken away either from a glacier or from an ice-shelf formation.  WMOHydrology 

A piece of ice of the order of tens of metres to many kilometres across that has been shed by a glacier terminating in the sea or a lake.  Swisseduc 

A large mass of floating or stranded ice that has broken away from a glacier; usually more than 5 m above sea level. The unmodified term "iceberg" usually refers to the irregular masses of ice formed by the calving of glaciers along an orographically rough coast, whereas tabular icebergs and ice islands are calved from an ice shelf, and floebergs are formed from sea ice. In decreasing size, they are classified as: ice island (few thousand square meters to 500 km^2 in area); tabular iceberg; iceberg; bergy bit (less than 5 m above sea level, between 1 and 200 m^2 in area); and growler (less than 1 m above sea level, about 20 m^2 in area).  AMSglossary 

A mass of ice found floating in the ocean or a lake. Often icebergs form when ice calves from land-based glaciers into the water body. Icebergs can be dangerous to shipping in high and mid-latitude regions of the ocean because 90 percent of their mass lies below the ocean surface.  PhysicalGeography 

Large mass of floating or stranded ice of greatly varying shape, more than 5 m above sea level, which has broken away from a glacier.  SPRI 

 GCW 
Created 2017.06.06
Last Modified 2022.04.08
Contributed by GCW Glossary
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