1. A dark, finely textured dust powder carried by wind and deposited on a snow or ice surface: Depressions containing cryoconite absorb solar radiation, thus causing the melting of the neighboring glacier ice.
2. Organisms and wind-blown detritus that induce surface melt pits in glaciers: Cryoconite is a gray powder which settles on the surfaces of the inland ice in different places in Greenland.