Jökulhlaup
A glacier outburst flood resulting from the failure of a
glacier-ice-dam, glacier-sediment-dam, or from the melting
of glacier ice by a volcanic eruption (Icelandic).
East-looking, July 1994, photograph showing a
large volume of turbulent, sediment laded flood
water discharging from the margin of Bering Glacier
during a large surge-related outburst flood. Peak
discharge was more than 100,000 CFS. Chugach National
Forest, Chugach Mountains, Alaska.. Bering Glacier
flows through Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park. |
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Kame
A sand and gravel deposit formed by running water on stagnant
or moving-glacier ice. Crevasse fills or crevasse ridges
form
within crevasses. Kames form on flat or inclined ice, in
holes, or in cracks. A kame terrace forms between the glacier
and the adjacent land surface. Shapes include hills, mounds,
knobs, hummocks, or ridges. (Print-resolution; 12 MB)
North-looking oblique aerial photograph of a complex
sediment mass deposited by the retreating Malaspina
Glacier in Malaspina Lake. Included are meandering
eskers, linear crevasse fills and a massive ice
cored kame. Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park,
Chugach Mountains, Alaska. |
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Kettle
A depression that forms in an outwash plain or other glacial
deposit by the melting of an in-situ block of glacier ice
that was separated from the retreating glacier-margin and
subsequently buried by glacier sedimentation. As the buried
ice melts, the depression enlarges.
North-looking oblique aerial photograph showing
about a dozen enlarging depressions forming on
the surface of debris-covered stagnant ice in
the medial moraine band area of Bering Glacier's
piedmont lobe, Chugach National Forest, Chugach
Mountains, Alaska. The largest kettle shown is
~ 150 feet in diameter. Bering Glacier flows through
Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park. |
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Little Ice Age (Neoglaciation)
The most recent interval of temperate glacier expansion
and advance on Earth. It began ~ 650 years ago and continued
into
the 20th century in many locations. Temperate glaciers
in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia
were affected.
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey