The mass balance, or budget, of a glacier is total amount of accumulation balance against the total amount of ablation.

Importance: The mass balance not only determines the survival of a glacier but determines its vigor and erosive capability.

• Annual Mass balance(net balance)
  • The mass balance (volume of water equivalent) of a glacier is the total ablation subtracted from the total accumulation of a glacier for a (budget) year. In other words it is the overall change in a glacier's mass in one year.
    • Positive mass balance: A glacier with a positive mass balance over several years will advance and the elevation equilibrium line will decreases.
    • Negative mass balance: A glacier with a negative mass balance over several years will retreat and the elevation of its equilibrium line will increase.
    • Equilibrium: A glacier in equilibrium ablates as much as it accumulates and the elevation of its average annual equilibrium line remains constant. Most glaciers have a positive or negative annual mass balance that may average out over several years.
    • Fluctuations in the mass balance and altitude of the equilibrium line is a useful indicator of climatic change.
    • Browse the latest mass balance data from the World Glacier Monitoring Service
  • Specific mass balance: Is the total accumulation-ablation for a specific location on the glacier.
    
• Annual mass balance gradient
  • The net balance gradient is useful in quantifying the dynamic nature of a glacier and is defined as the increase of mass balance (mm of H₂O) per meter of altitude. Glaciers with steep gradients have a large variation with increasing altitude and are more active.

  Mass balance studies of select glaciers: World Glacier Monitoring Service

  • White Glacier :valley glacier occupying 38.7 km2 in the Expedition Fjord area of Axel Heiberg Island, N.W.T., Canada
  • Hintereisferner Glacier: Valley glacier in the Austrian Alps
  • Check out other glaciers from the 1994/95 Report MBB No. 4

• Blue Ice, 2002, Benjamin Drumund, Carlton College (Student): An excellent virtual tour of a temperate alpine glacier on the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington.
• Glaciers, Energy and Mass Balance, 1999, Aschoff and O'Connor, Simple informative web presentation lecture  

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  Lindley Hanson (email) Last Modified 3/2/03