Although glaciers seem motionless to the observer they are in constant motion and the terminus is always either advancing or retreating.
Part of the glacier where snow builds up and turns to ice moves outward from there.
The head of the glacier comes up against a steep bedrock cliff called a cirque headwall[2] The head can come away from the cirque in a downslope movement which can create a large crevasse called a bergschrund.
The existence of a bergschrund is evidence that ice mass has pulled away from the cirque.
[4] attribution:Contains text copied from Accumulation zone and Bergschrund and Terminus.