The time system in which mass balance is determined by conducting field surveys on fixed calendar dates. The fixed date representing the start of the mass-balance year is usually at the start of the l
ocal hydrological year. To determine seasonal balances, a fixed date is chosen to represent the mean date of the end of the accumulation season. Due to logistical constraints it is often impossible to conduct field surveys on these exact dates. Therefore the data need to be corrected, which is often done by estimating ablation and accumulation between the survey date and the fixed date using meteorological data from a nearby weather station or a database of upper-air measurements. See also measurement year, stratigraphic system, floating-date system, combined system.
A fjord (or fiord) is a long, narrow estuary with steep sides, made when a glacial valley is filled by rising sea water levels. The seeds of a fjord are laid when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley thro
ugh abrasion of the surrounding bedrock by the sediment it carries. Many such valleys were formed during recent ice age when the sea was at a much lower level than it is today. At the end of the ice age, the climate warmed up again and glaciers retreated. Sea level rose due to an influx of water from melting ice sheets and glaciers around the world (it rose over 100 m after the last ice age), inundating the vacated valleys with seawater to form fjords.
A glacially eroded or modified U-shaped valley that extends below sea level and connects to the ocean. Filled with seawater, depths may reach more than 1,000 feet below sea level. The largest Alaskan
fiords are more than 100 miles long and more than 5 miles wide. Also spelled Fiord.
A fjord (from the Norwegian; spelt fiord in North America and New Zealand) is a long, narrow arm of the sea, formed as a result of erosion by a valley glacier.
A deep-water inlet, usually surrounded by mountains; specifically a submerged U-shaped valley carved out by glacial action. The fjord is characteristic of the coastal regions of Norway, western Scotla
nd and Ireland, Greenland, Labrador, Alaska, British Columbia, southern Chile, the Antarctic peninsula, southwest New Zealand, and other high-latitude oceanic islands (Iceland, Spitzbergen, Kerguelen, etc.). (Sometimes spelled fiord, fiard.)