Glacier Toe

Glacier toe is the lowest end of a glacier and alternatively called as glacier snout or terminus (Figure 1). The surface streams growing from the snow and ice fields enter into the moulin or crevasse to become the englacial or subglacial flows and emerge out at the glacier toe. Due to this meltwater path, ice caves are formed at glacier toe (Figure 2). There is a general assumption that glacial erosion ends near the toe of a glacier where moraine deposition begins. The glacier toe fluctuations are also representative of the glacier’s advance or retreat.

Glacier Toe, Figure 1

A landscape view of glacier toe, Suru glacier, Jammu and Kashmir. (Photograph by Dr. Rajesh Kumar.)