1 The input of ice to a glacier. Weaver (1975) Arct. & Alpine Res. 7, 3 suggests that it is greatest in shaded uplands. The accumulation zone (accumulation sub-system) is between the source and the firn line, where the input of snow, firn, and ice exceeds ablation. For snowfall in an accumulation zone to emerge as ice at the glacier snout takes about 100 years (Tuffen et al. (2002) Sed. Geol. 149).

2 The reinvestment of surplus value, in the form of capital, in order to increase that capital. Accumulation is a key feature of capitalism because, in order to remain in business, capitalists have not only to preserve the value of their capital, but to add to it. ‘The accumulation of [a] firm’s net worth determines the growth rate of capital and the growth rate of the economy’ (Chatelain (2004) Econ. Letts. 85). D. Harvey (1982) argues that the obligatory accumulation of capitalism has fostered uneven development. Somel (2004) ERC W. Paper 0411 argues that the terms of trade between North and South help maintain a gap in capital accumulation. See also Hart-Landsberg and Burkett (2006) Hist. Materialism 14, 3 on China and the dynamics of transnational accumulation.

Smith’s views on accumulation and phases of capitalist development (2005, Hist. Materialism 13, 4) are contested by O’Brien (2007) Hist. Materialism 15, 1. See Holden et al. (2011) Geografiska B 93, 2, 141 on accumulation by dispossession.