| Term: | Calving |
| Definition: |
Sea ice terminology that describes the breaking away of a mass of ice from an ice wall, ice front or iceberg. ECCCanada
The breaking away of a mass of ice from an ice wall, ice front, or iceberg. WMOSeaIce The component of ablation consisting of the breaking off of discrete pieces of ice from a glacier margin into lake or sea water, producing icebergs, or onto land in the case of dry calving. Calving excludes frontal melting and sublimation, although in practice it may be difficult to measure the phenomena separately. For example subaqueous frontal melting may lead to the detachment of icebergs by undercutting or by encouraging the propagation of crevasses. IHPGlacierMassBalance Process by which ice breaks off a glacier's terminus usually the term is reserved for tidewater glaciers or glaciers that end in lakes, but it can refer to ice that falls from hanging glaciers. NSIDCCryosphere The process by which pieces of ice break away from the terminus of a glacier that ends in a body of water or from the edge of a floating ice shelf that ends in the ocean. Once they enter the water, the pieces are called icebergs. The breaking off of discrete pieces of ice from a glacier, ice sheet or an ice shelf into lake or seawater, producing icebergs. This is a form of mass loss from an ice body. IPCC2013 Breaking away of a mass of ice from an ice wall, ice front or iceberg. WMOHydrology The process of detachment of icebergs and smaller blocks of ice from a glacier into water. Swisseduc The breaking away of a mass of ice from a floating glacier, ice front, or iceberg. AMSglossary The loss of glacier mass when ice breaks off into a large water body like an ocean or a lake. PhysicalGeography The breaking away of a mass of ice from a floating glacier, ice front or iceberg. SPRI Terminus extends into lake or sea (Tidewater glacier); Produces icebergs; Any glacier that possesses 'Normal' frontal characteristics and is calving; Not to be used for 'Terrestrial calving' ('dry calving'); Terminus of a glacier sufficiently extending into sea or lake water to produce icebergs; includes - for this inventory - dry land calving which would be recognisable from the lowest glacier elevation (WGMS 1970, 1998); Terminus of a glacier sufficiently extending into sea or occasionally lake water to produce icebergs; includes - for this inventory - dry land calving (WGMS 1977); If the frontal terminus is calving on dry land see classification for 'Terrestrial calving' GLIMSGlacier GCW |