An analytical technique for identification of chemical structures, determination of mixtures, and quantitative elemental analysis, in which ions are separated according to the mass/charge ratio and de
tected by a suitable detector.
The renewal of the mass of a glacier by mass-balance processes. Mass turnover is measured most usefully by the mass-turnover time, which is the mass of the glacier divided by the mass-balance amplitud
e, with the latter expressed as an Annual rate. Mass-turnover times range from several decades for glacierets to tens of thousands of years for ice sheets. See response time.