| Term: | Piedmont glacier |
| Definition: |
Large ice lobe spread out over surrounding terrain, associated with the terminus of a large mountain valley glacier. NSIDCCryosphere
A fan or lobe-shaped glacier, located at the front of a mountain range. It forms when one or more valley glaciers flow from a confined valley onto a plain where it expands. The 30-mile wide Malaspina is the largest in Alaska. A glacier the lower tongue of which is fan-shaped and significantly wider than the upper tongue. The lateral expansion of a piedmont glacier is markedly greater than that of an expanded-foot glacier. In some classifications piedmont glaciers are distinguished from expanded-foot glaciers by requiring that a piedmont glacier have two or more coalescing tributaries. See the related but not synonymous ice piedmont. IHPGlacierMassBalance A glacier that spreads out as a wide lobe as it leaves a narrow mountain valley to enter a wider valley or a plain. Swisseduc The lobe-shaped, expanded, terminal part of a valley glacier spread out over broad lowlands at the base of mountains. AMSglossary A large glacier formed from the merger of several alpine glaciers. PhysicalGeography The lobe-shaped, expanded, terminal part of a valley glacier spread out over broad lowlands at the base of mountains (cf. Ice piedmont). SPRI GCW |