Calving (Glacier)

Calving is the breaking off of ice blocks from the front of a glacier or ice shelf into the water, the mechanism by which tidewater glaciers and ice shelves lose mass directly to the ocean. Calving rate depends on terminus geometry, water depth, and ocean melt at the ice front, and a glacier whose grounding line retreats into a deepening trough can calve unstably. It is a major and poorly bounded term in projections of ice-sheet contribution to sea-level rise.