Cryosphere glossary

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rock glacier

looks like a mountain glacier and has active flow; usually includes a poorly sorted mess of rocks and fine material; may include: (1) interstitial ice a meter or so below the surface (“ice-cemented”), (2) a buried core of ice (“ice-cored”), and/or (3) rock debris from avalanching snow and rock.
rock_glacier.jpg

Frying Pan Glacier, Colorado, is almost entirely covered by rocks and debris in this photograph from 1966.

George L. Snyder, archived at the World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, CO

rotten ice

floating ice which has become honeycombed in the course of melting, and which is in an advanced state of disintegration.