subglacial
adjUK /sʌbˈɡleɪ.ʃl̩/ · US /ˌsʌbˈɡleɪ.ʃ(ə)l/
Etymology PIE word *upó From sub- (prefix meaning ‘beneath, under’) + glacial (“of or relating to glaciers; cold and icy; (figurative) very slow”).
1
Formed or occurring beneath a glacier or other body of ice.
- These streams continue to flow in winter as well as in summer, although in less quantity; […] It is also this melting beneath the ice (subglacial, suppose we call it) which loosens the ice from the ground, and occasions, or rather permits, the perpetual downward movement, with which "The glacier's cold and restless mass / Moves onward day by day."1836 September 2, J. R., “Art. VI. Observations on the Causes which Occasion the Variation of Temperature between Spring and River Water.”, in J[ohn] C[laudius] Loudon, editor, The Magazine of Natural History, and Journal of Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Geology, and Meteorology, volume IX, number 66, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, […], published October 1836, →OCLC, page 534:
- Securing political approval for even modest changes to railway organisation and structure has been of sub-glacial speed and complexity since 2004, when Government abolished the Strategic Rail Authority and put itself in charge.2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST Seize the Moment”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:
- Derived terms
- subglacial duct, subglacial lake, subglacially, subglacial rill, subglacial stream, subglacial volcano