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Snow field

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meltwater from snowfields fill tarns on Mount Rainier.

A snow field, snowfield or neve is an accumulation of permanent snow and ice, typically found above the snow line, normally in mountainous and glacial terrain.[1]

Glaciers originate in snowfields. The lower end of a glacier is usually free from snow and névé in summer. In the upper end and above the upper boundary of a glacier, the snow field is an ice field covered with snow. The glacier upper boundary, where it emerges from under a snow field, is ill-defined because of gradual transition.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Snowfield and neve". AccessScience. doi:10.1036/1097-8542.630200. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  2. ^ Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Rollin D. Salisbury (1904) "Geology", p. 258