Ablation

noun

1. A carrying or taking away; removal.
2. The surgical removal of a body part, an organ, or especially a tumor; the removal of an organ function; amputation.
3. The progressive removal of material by any of a variety of processes such as vaporization under heat or chipping.
4. The removal of a glacier by melting and evaporation; the lowering of a land surface by any of several means, as in wind erosion, mass wasting.
5. The depletion of surface snow and ice by melting and evaporation.