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Snow Features

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

  • 9 Accesses

Definition

Surface structures produced from atmospherically precipitated granular material during or after deposition, typically redistributed by aeolian processes.

Synonyms

Nival deposits; Nival relief forms

Subtypes

Depositional structures (formed by free and forced deposition): friable freshly deposited snow cover (Kotlyakov 1966), snow-drift forms, snow ripple marks (cm scale in wavelength, mm scale in height), snow waves (m scale transverse dunes), snow barchans (Fig. 1) (“barchanoids”). Erosional structures: sastrugi (elongate grooves resulted from differential wind carving or hardened snow ridges (Bromwich et al. 1990)); irregular patterns, including cleavage patterns, pits, or corrasion hollows (Kotlyakov 1966, p. 59); and inverted forms (e.g., footprints) (Doumani 1967). Large-scale undulations: transverse snow megadunes. On Earth, microtopography of snow surfaces is characterized by ablation hollows during summer and Sastruga during winter (Herzfeld et al. 2003).

Snow...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center/NPP, 239-20, 94035, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Henrik Hargitai

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  1. Henrik Hargitai
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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center/NPP, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Henrik Hargitai

  2. Konkoly Thege Miklos Astronomical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Ákos Kereszturi

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Hargitai, H. (2015). Snow Features. In: Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (eds) Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3134-3_625

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