Ogive

Alternative definitions (7), class: vernacular (0)
Term: Ogive
Definition: 1. A band or wave on the surface of a valley glacier, stretching from side to side and arched in the direction of flow. 2. The graph of a cumulative frequency distribution. Band or wave on the surface of a valley glacier, stretching from side to side and arched in the direction of flow. Alternate bands of light and dark ice seen on a glacier surface. Ogives are arc-shaped features occasionally found across the glacier surface below icefalls. They may be ridges and swales in the ice or bands of darker or lighter ice. One theory of their formation suggests that the ice is stretched and sometimes dirtied when exposed in the icefall during the high velocities of summer; it is compressed during the winter so that bands of different ice thickness form. Arcuate bands or waves, with their apices pointing down-glacier, that develop in an icefall. Alternating light and dark bands are called band ogives or Forbes bands. Each pair of bands, or one wave and trough, is believed to represent a year's movement through the icefall.
Created 2022.03.08
Last Modified 2023.03.27
Contributed by GCW Glossary
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