A mass of ice calves from the Perito Moreno glacier in Lago Argentino
Ice calving, also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving, is the breaking of ice chunks from the edge of a glacier.[1] It is a form of ice ablation or ice disruption. It is the sudden release and breaking away of a mass of ice from a glacier, iceberg, ice front, ice shelf, or crevasse. The ice that breaks away can be classified as an iceberg, but may also be a growler, bergy bit, or a crevasse wall breakaway.[2]
Calving of glaciers is often accompanied by a loud cracking or booming sound[3] before blocks of ice up to 60 metres (200 ft) high break loose and crash into the water. The entry of the ice into the water causes large, and often hazardous waves.[4] The waves formed in locations like Johns Hopkins Glacier can be so large that boats cannot approach closer than three kilometres (1+1⁄2 nautical miles). These events have become major tourist attractions in locations such as Alaska.
Many glaciers terminate at oceans or freshwater lakes which results naturally[5] with the calving of large numbers of icebergs. Calving of Greenland's glaciers produce 12,000 to 15,000 icebergs each year alone.[6]
Calving of ice shelves is often preceded by a rift.[7] An ice shelf in steady state calves at roughly the same rate as the influx of new ice,[8][9] and calving events may occur on sub-annual to decadal timescales to maintain an overall average mean position of the ice shelf front. When calving rates exceed the influx of new ice, ice front retreat occurs, and ice shelves may grow smaller and weaker.[10]
^Essentials of Geology, 3rd edition, Stephen Marshak
^Glossary of Glacier Terms, Ellin Beltz, 2006. Retrieved July 2009.
^Glacier Bay, National Park Service. Retrieved July 2009.
^Glacier Calving photos Archived 2010-01-25 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 2009.
^ARCTIC, Vol. 39, No. 1 (March 1986) P. 15-19, Ice Island Calvings and Ice Shelf Changes, Milne Ice Shelf and Ayles Ice Shelf, Ellesmere Island, N.W.T. Archived 2019-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Martin O. Jeffries, 1985, University of Calgary. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
^Oceans, Oxfam. Retrieved June 2009.
^Promotions/Public Relations (2006-12-08). "The loose tooth: rifting and calving of the Amery Ice Shelf - Australian Antarctic Division". Aad.gov.au. Archived from the original on October 2, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
^Rignot, E.; Jacobs, S.; Mouginot, J.; Scheuchl, B. (19 July 2013). "Ice-Shelf Melting Around Antarctica". Science. 341 (6143): 266–270. doi:10.1126/science.1235798. PMID 23765278. S2CID 206548095.
^Depoorter, M. A.; Bamber, J. L.; Griggs, J. A.; Lenaerts, J. T. M.; Ligtenberg, S. R. M.; van den Broeke, M. R.; Moholdt, G. (3 October 2013). "Calving fluxes and basal melt rates of Antarctic ice shelves". Nature. 502 (7469): 89–92. doi:10.1038/nature12567. PMID 24037377. S2CID 4462940.
^Greene, Chad A.; Gardner, Alex S.; Schlegel, Nicole-Jeanne; Fraser, Alexander D. (10 August 2022). "Antarctic calving loss rivals ice-shelf thinning". Nature. 609 (7929): 948–953. Bibcode:2022Natur.609..948G. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05037-w. PMID 35948639. S2CID 251495070.
Icecalving, also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving, is the breaking of ice chunks from the edge of a glacier. It is a form of ice ablation or...
cryoseisms originating from glacial movements such as icecalving, or through seabed gouging by ice. The sound's source was roughly triangulated to 50°S...
glaciers for icecalving along with the Johns Hopkins Glacier. As a glacier calves it makes sounds similar to gunshots from the cracking of the ice and the...
between major calving events (calving is the sudden release and breaking away of a mass of ice from a glacier, iceberg, ice front, ice shelf, or crevasse)...
triggered near the ice margin may in turn accelerate icecalving and may account for the Heinrich events. As more ice is removed near the ice margin, more intraplate...
Look up calving in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Calving may refer to: Calving, the process of giving birth to a calf Icecalving, the process by which...
the only place that can experience icecalving. Calving can also take place in lakes, fjords, and continental ice cliffs. An icefield is an example of...
mass due to melting, and calving. Melting can be due to solar radiation, or heat and salt transport from the ocean. Iceberg calving is generally enhanced...
in Antarctica Penitente (snow formation) Icecalving Post, Austin; Lachapelle, Edward R. (2000). Glacier Ice (Revised ed.). Seattle: University of Washington...
glaciers. These glaciers regularly shed ice in what is known as icecalving. Sediment released from calved and melting ice sinks accumulates on the seafloor...
breakup of glacial ice (calving), or basal melting due to warm ocean water under the ice. Melting or breakup of floating shelf ice does not directly affect...
low-altitude area of a glacier or ice sheet below firn with a net loss in ice mass due to melting, sublimation, evaporation, icecalving, aeolian processes like...
whose young are called "calves" Crus, the entire lower leg Calve (disambiguation) Calving (disambiguation) Calf Island (disambiguation) Golden calf, idol...
as a precursor to natural icecalving from Petermann Glacier. A large chunk estimated to be 100 square miles (260 km2) calved off the glacier in August...
20 km (12 mi) of unbroken ice remained and calving was considered to be a certainty in 2017. This was predicted to cause the calving of between nine and twelve...
kilometres (1.8 cu mi) of ice crashing off the glacier. "The calving of a massive glacier believed to have produced the ice that sank the Titanic is like...
mid-20th century. Greenland ice sheet always loses some mass from icecalving at its coasts, but it used to gain more ice on average due to the accumulation...
of sea ice abutting the calving fronts of ice shelves has been shown to influence glacier flow and potentially the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet...
breakaway, in glaciology, an informal classification that can result from icecalving Secession This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the...
937 ft). Due to this immense size, enormous mass is shed when the repeated icecalving events occur at the glacier's marine terminus – the point where grounding...
the nuclear capsule there has been an increased number of floods and icecalving. Beckhusen, Robert. "Inside the CIA Mission to Haul Plutonium Up the...
Meanwhile, Hushpuppy imagines that the icecalving releases some aurochs that have been frozen in polar ice into the ocean. Throughout the rest of the...
The phases of ice are all possible states of matter for water as a solid. Currently, 19 phases, including both crystalline and amorphous ice, have been observed...
magnitudes in excess of 5.0. A large calving of approximately 7 km2 took place on 15 February 2015. On 16 August 2015 a calving was identified via satellite images...
across the entire ice shelf, marking the beginning of the calving event. Brunt Basin Emperor Bay List of glaciers List of Antarctic ice shelves List of...
well-defined periods of increased iceberg Icecalving and discharge from various parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The highest period of discharge of...
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