Dead Ice

remnants of a glacier that has stopped moving. Dead ice is found below the end of an active glacier tongue, and often there is no clear boundary between it and the tongue. Dead ice may be several dozen meters thick. In mountains dead ice is usually covered by a thick layer of morainic deposits, which makes it difficult for the dead ice to thaw and causes it to be preserved for long periods. The uneven thawing of dead ice leads to the formation of complex hilly relief and thermokarstic depressions. Particularly large sections of dead ice form as a result of the rapid movement of large ice masses downward, where, because of an overload of moraine, they stop moving and lose their connection with the active part of the glacier. It is hypothesized that enormous masses of dead ice were formed as a result of the degradation of Pleistocene ice sheets.