Piedmont glacier

Alternative definitions (7), class: vernacular (0)
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 
Created 2017.06.06
Last Modified 2022.04.08
Contributed by GCW Glossary
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