Cryosphere glossary
frost point
the highest temperature at which atmospheric moisture will sublimate in the form of hoarfrost on a cooled surface; it is analogous to the dew point.
frost shattering
the mechanical disintegration of rock by the pressure of water freezing in pores and along grain boundaries.
frost smoke
fog-like clouds, due to the contact of cold air with relatively warm water, which appear over newly-formed leads, or leeward of the ice edge, and which may persist while new ice is forming.
frost sorting
the differential movement of soil particles of different sizes as a result of frost action.
frost weathering
the disintegration and break-up of soil or rock by the combined action of frost shattering, frost wedging and hydration shattering.
frost wedging
the mechanical disintegration, splitting or break-up of rock by the pressure of water freezing in cracks, crevices, pores, joints or bedding planes.
frost-stable ground
ground (soil or rock) in which little or no segregated ice forms during seasonal freezing.
frost-stable soil
soil in which little or no segregated ice forms during seasonal freezing.
frost-susceptible ground
ground (soil or rock) in which segregated ice will form (causing frost heave) under the required conditions of moisture supply and temperature.
frost-susceptible soil
soil in which segregated ice will form (causing frost heave) under the required conditions of moisture supply and temperature.
frozen fringe
the zone in a freezing, frost-susceptible soil between the warmest isotherm at which ice exists in pores and the isotherm at which the warmest ice lens is growing.
frozen ground
soil or rock in which part or all of the pore water has turned into ice.
fusion
the phase transition of a substance passing from the solid to the liquid state, melting; in meteorology, fusion is understood to refer to the melting of ice, which, if the ice is pure and subjected to one standard atmosphere of pressure, takes place at the ice point of 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).