accumulation zone
ah-KYOO-myoo-LAY-shun zohn
The upper portion of a glacier where snowfall exceeds melt, and where fresh snow compresses into firn and eventually into glacial ice. The accumulation zone is where a glacier is born — it is the account into which deposits are made. Below it, in the ablation zone, the withdrawals happen.
Etymology
Latin accumulare, to heap up, from ad- (to, toward) + cumulare (to pile), from cumulus (a heap). Snow heaped upon snow until it becomes ice.
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