Flows down from an ice sheet, ice field or ice cap beyond its margins; No clearly defined catchment area; Usually follows local topographic depressions; Drains an ice sheet, ice field or ice cap, usua
lly of valley glacier form; the catchment area may not be clearly delineated; The source ice sheet, ice field or ice cap has the function of a "parent ice mass" in GLIMS
A glacier, usually of valley-glacier form, that drains an ice sheet, icefield or ice cap. In the accumulation zone the glacier outline may not be well defined because of the subdued relief.
A fan-shaped body of sediments deposited by braided streams from a melting glacier. Sediment locked within the ice of the glacier gets transported by the streams of meltwater and deposits on the outwa
sh plain at the terminus of the glacier.
A flat or gentle sloping surface of glaciofluvial sediments deposited by meltwater streams at the edge of a glacier. Usually found in close spatial association with moraines.
A broad, low-slope angle alluvial plain composed of glacially eroded, sorted sediment (termed outwash), that has been transported by meltwater. The alluvial plain begins at the foot of a glacier and m
ay extend for miles. Typically, the sediment becomes finer grained with increasing distance from the glacier terminus.