Glacier ice accumulation

Accumulation is one element in the glacier mass balance formula, with ablation counteracting.

With successive years in which accumulation exceeds ablation, then a glacier will experience positive mass balance, and its terminus will advance.

Dry snow zones only occur within the interior regions of the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets.

The meltwater either percolates into the depths of the glacier or flows down-glacier where it might refreeze as superimposed ice.

A glacier's equilibrium line is located at the lower limit of the wet snow zone.

North-looking oblique aerial photograph showing a small, unnamed hanging glacier located in the Chugach Mountains , near Cordova Peak , Chugach National Forest , Alaska .