Glaciology Terms

noun a large floating mass of ice detached from a glacier or ice sheet and carried out to sea

• The ship's captain carefully navigated around the iceberg to avoid a collision.
• We almost hit an iceberg on our cruise, but the captain steered us away just in time.
• That party was so cool, it was like the tip of the iceberg!
• His calm demeanor was just the tip of the iceberg; underneath, he was a mess.

noun the portions of the Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and frozen ground

• The cryosphere is the frozen water part of the Earth's system, including snow, ice caps, glaciers, and permafrost.
• The cryosphere refers to all the frozen stuff on Earth, like ice and snow.
• When the cryosphere starts melting, that's when things get real messy.
• Her heart was as cold and frozen as the cryosphere, unwilling to thaw for anyone.

noun The act of giving birth to a calf (in cows or other ungulates)

• The process of calving involves the breaking off of large pieces of ice from a glacier.
• We might get lucky and witness some calving while we're out on the boat.
• I heard there's some crazy calving happening down at the ice shelf.
• The company is calving off non-profitable divisions to focus on their core business.