Snow field

This article is about accumulations of permanent snow and ice. For the UK indie rock band, see Editors (band).
Not to be confused with ice field.
Meltwater from snowfields fill tarns on Mount Rainier.

A snow field, snowfield or neve is an accumulation of permanent snow and ice, typically found above the snow line, normally in mountainous and glacial terrain.[1]

Glaciers originate in snowfields. The lower end of a glacier is usually free from snow and névé in summer. In the upper end and above the upper boundary of a glacier, the snow field is an ice field covered with snow. The glacier upper boundary, where it emerges from under a snow field, is ill-defined because of gradual transition.[2]

  1. ^ "Snowfield and neve". AccessScience. doi:10.1036/1097-8542.630200. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  2. ^ Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Rollin D. Salisbury (1904) "Geology", p. 258