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ablation Loss of snow and ice from a glacier by 'sublimation, melting, and evaporation. Ablation also results from the *calving of icebergs, and *avalanches. In temperate and sub-polar regions melting is the most important process in ablation, whereas in the Antarctic the most important ablation process is calving. The rate of loss varies with the meteorological factors of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and *insolation, together with * aspect and the nature of the surface. In snowfields, ablation can also include snow removed by the wind, and is affected by aspect, depth of snow, and the nature of the underlying surface.