A crevasse near the side of a glacier formed as the glacier moves past stationary valley walls; usually oriented about 45 degrees up-glacier from the side wall.
A part of the seasonal ice zone that varies in width (100 to 200 kilometers, 62 to 124 miles) that extends from the ice edge into the ice pack, where waves and swells affect the ice; often characteriz
ed by highly variable ice conditions; in general, it is wider in the Antarctic than the Arctic.
The marginal ice zone (MIZ) is not a very well defined term and it is useful for an author to be specific about its meaning when using it. Probably the most accepted definition is that of Wadhams (198
6) who describes it as 'that part of the ice cover which is close enough to the open ocean boundary to be affected by its presence'. This definition is open to interpretation, but is generally applied to that region of the pack which is significantly affected by ocean swell. In the Antarctic this region may extend hundreds of kilometres from the ice edge, and in some regions right to the coast. The MIZ is an area of enhanced ice drift, deformation and divergence.