cryosphere
CRY-oh-sfeer
The portion of Earth's surface where water exists in solid form — glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, permafrost, snow cover, and frozen ground. The cryosphere is not a place; it is a condition, and it is shrinking. Every component of the cryosphere is in decline. The word names the frozen world as a system, and that system is coming apart.
Etymology
From Greek kryos (cold, frost) + sphaira (sphere). The sphere of cold.
*
Surprise Me With a Word