释义 |
cryoconite|kraɪəʊˈkəʊnaɪt| Also kryokonite. [f. cryo- + Gr. κόν-ις dust + -ite1.] A grey powder found in layers at the bottom of holes in glaciers, at one time thought to be meteoric in origin but now thought to consist of dust blown by wind from areas beyond the ice margin. Also attrib. in cryokonite hole.
1872A. E. Nordenskiöld in Geol. Mag. IX. 356 In the bottom of them [sc. holes in the ice filled with water] we found everywhere..a layer..of grey powder, often conglomerated... The substance is not a clay, but a sandy trachytic mineral... I propose for this substance the name Kryokonite. 1889G. J. Wright Ice Age N. Amer. 9 Nordenskiöld attributed the initial melting of ice-surface to accumulations of meteoric dust which he named kryokonite. 1891Standard 9 Feb., The mysterious ‘kryokonite’ of the vast icefields of Greenland is now believed to be..simply dust blown from America or Europe. 1925N. E. Odell in E. F. Norton Fight for Everest, 1924 311 On the East Rongbuk Glacier were some rather beautiful examples of the so-called ‘cryoconite holes’ or ‘dust holes’, in which small particles of morainic material had melted their way down into the surface of the ice, as is so often to be seen on arctic glaciers especially. 1957Gloss. Geol. (Amer. Geol. Inst.) 69/2 Absorption of radiation by the cryoconite causes ablation and formation of cryoconite holes or Dust wells. 1963J. L. Dyson World of Ice xii. 138 In the bottom of every pit is a fine-grained gelatinous material called cryoconite, consisting partly of dust blown by the wind from areas beyond the ice margin. But cryoconite contains a considerable amount of organic material in the form of several kinds of blue-green algae and fungi. 1967Hamelin & Cook Illustr. Gloss. Periglacial Phenom. iii. 87 (caption) Cryoconite holes. |