GLACIER
glacier
(noun) a slowly moving mass of ice
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
glacier (plural glaciers)
(geology) A large body of ice which flows under its own mass, usually downhill.
Anagrams
• Cargile, gracile
Source: Wiktionary
Gla"cier, n. Etym: [F. glacier, fr. glace ice, L. glacies.]
Definition: An immense field or stream of ice, formed in the region of
perpetual snow, and moving slowly down a mountain slope or valley, as
in the Alps, or over an extended area, as in Greenland.
Note: The mass of compacted snow forming the upper part of a glacier
is called the firn, or névé; the glacier proper consist of solid ice,
deeply crevassed where broken up by irregularities in the slope or
direction of its path. A glacier usually carries with it
accumulations of stones and dirt called moraines, which are
designated, according to their position, as lateral, medial, or
terminal (see Moraine). The common rate of flow of the Alpine
glaciers is from ten to twenty inches per day in summer, and about
half that in winter. Glacier theory (Geol.), the theory that large
parts of the frigid and temperate zones were covered with ice during
the glacial, or ice, period, and that, by the agency of this ice, the
loose materials on the earth's surface, called drift or diluvium,
were transported and accumulated.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition