Polythermal glacier

Alternative definitions (2), class: vernacular (0)
Term: Polythermal glacier
Definition: A glacier containing some cold ice and some temperate ice. Classically, as first described, a polythermal glacier has a basal layer of temperate ice overlain by a layer of cold ice (panel a in Figure 9), above which there may be a surface layer up to about 1015 m thick that warms to the melting point seasonally. See cold glacier, temperate glacier.  IHPGlacierMassBalance 

A thermally complex glacier with both warm and cold ice (q.v.). Typically, warm ice occurs where the ice is thickest as a result of geothermal heating, whilst the snout and margins of the glacier are frozen to the bed.  Swisseduc 

 GCW 
Created 2017.06.06
Last Modified 2022.03.08
Contributed by GCW Glossary
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