Glaciers once covered a large part of Norway. Even today, there are many remnants of ice caps and valley glaciers throughout the country, especially in Svalbard. The glossary below contains terms that apply to glacier phenomena.
Arete – sharp edge between two valley glaciers.
Calving – the breakaway of the icebergs from the advancing glacier.
Circus, kars – "Amphitheater” carved into the mountain slope by the glacier.
Ice cap or ice sheet – stable zone of accumulation and compression of snow and ice, the source of the formation of valley glaciers. The ice cap generally covers a larger area than the ice sheets. When the entire mass of land is covered with an ice cap (as in the case of Greenland or Antarctica), then it is called a continental glacier.
Firn – hard, coarse-grained snow at the top of the glacier, which has not yet turned to ice.
Moraine clay – small, a talcum-like mule flowing in glacial streams, which settles in the valleys of glacial rivers. It is formed by the friction of ice against rocks.
Growler, floating ice block – a small glacier, floating just below the water surface, hard to see, thus endangering ships.
Mushroom or ice table – a mushroom-like snow formation, formed as a result of irregular snow melting on sunny slopes of the glacier.
Jökulhlaup – Icelandic word meaning 'glacier cracking”; refers to the sudden and often catastrophic release of water from a glacier, caused by a fracture of a glacier face or a damming glacier, caused by volcanic activity under the ice sheet.
Company line – the highest level on the glacier, to which ice melts every year. Snow figure, above this level, is referred to as firn Ice Pieces – little icebergs, projecting above the surface of the sea not higher than on 5 m.
Valley glacier – a river of ice flowing from the ice sheet or ice cap down through the Glacier Przedgórski valley (piedmontowy) – a vast glacier resting at the foot of a steep hill, formed by the confluence of two or more valley glaciers.
Glacier advancing – a valley glacier flowing into the sea, which sheds the icebergs
Glacier mill – a pond or a stream in the interior of a glacier A frequent evidence of the presence of mills is deep, round hole in the ice.
Moberg – the mountain was formed as a result of a volcanic eruption under an ice cap. Classic mobergs are made of gelatinous rock mass.