A mass of rock material, cemented together by ice, that flows down a slope under the force of gravity much like the motion of a glacier.
A mass of poorly sorted, angular boulders cemented with interstitial ice. It moves slowly by the action of gravity.
a piece of ice that is covered with talus and moves much slower than a normal glacier (to the tune of about a half inch a year)
A glacier-like landform that often heads in a cirque and consists of a valley-filling accumulation of angular rock blocks. Rock glaciers have little or no visible ice at the surface. Ice may fill the spaces between rock blocks. Some rock glaciers move, although very slowly.
Boulders and fine material cemented by ice about a meter below the surface.
A slow-moving mixture of rock fragments and ice.
A glacier-like tongue of angular rock waste usually heading in cirques or other steep-walled amphitheaters and in many cases grading into true glaciers. There are many rock glaciers found along the edges of the Aquarius Plateau.
looks like a mountain glacier and has active flow; usually includes a poorly sorted mess of rocks and fine material; may include: (1) interstitial ice a meter or so below the surface (“ice-cemented”), (2) a buried core of ice (“ice-cored”), and/or (3) rock debris from avalanching snow and rock. Frying Pan Glacier, Colorado, is almost entirely covered by rocks and debris in this photograph from 1966. (Photo courtesy of George L. Snyder, archived at the World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, CO.)
Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms of blocky detritus which may extend outward and downslope from talus cones or from glaciers or the terminal moraines of glaciers. Their growth and formation is subject to some debate with three main theories in prominence. The first suggests that rock glaciers have formed from cirque glaciers and contain a glacial ice core or interstitial ice between the rocks which causes the formation to move downslope.