Glaciers
Glaciers
What is a glacier?
A glacier is “a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface” (Glacier, 2020). In shorter terms, it’s basically a huge mass of ice that moves slowly over land, a bit resembling rivers, but with a much slower flow instead. Glaciers often have a light blue colour. The way a glacier appears depends on its classified group and type. There are two groups of glaciers: alpine glaciers and ice sheets (National Geographic Society, 2012), and many types of glaciers under each group.
Where can glaciers be found?
To know where glaciers can be found, we must know about how and where glaciers form. Alpine glaciers usually form in cirques and high rock basins (Arindom, 2020), and there are many types of alpine glaciers, for example: mountain glaciers are often the white things you see on mountains, and tidewater glaciers are the white things you see on the sea. Ice sheets are formed from accumulating snow, which melts a bit and then hardens into firns (National Geographic Society, 2012). Some types of ice sheets include continental glaciers, ice caps (Glacier Types: Ice caps, 2020), etc.
What type of water is found here?
Glaciers are made out of freshwater in solid form (ice) (Ross, 2019). This includes the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet, which - together - make up for more than 99% of all the glaciers and glacial ice! Because of this, glaciers store about 75% of Earth’s freshwater, so they (glaciers) form the largest reservoir of freshwater on the planet (Glacier facts: National Geographic, 2020)!
How do living things make use of the water source?
As previously mentioned, some of the freshwater we get come from glaciers, which we need to drink, so humans and other organisms often use this water to drink. There are also many living things - which include bacteria, ice algae, and ice worms - which live on, in, or under glaciers, as an illustration, ice worms live on glaciers to eat algae and pollen that grow and fall in the glaciers (Iceworms, 2019).
Other interesting facts:
Did you know that…
The ice crystals of glaciers can grow up to the size of a baseball (Facts about glaciers, 2020).
Glaciers often appear a bluish colour due to how dense and compact glaciers are (Glacier facts: National Geographic, 2020)!
The Antarctic continent has been at least partially covered by an ice sheet for the past 40 million years (Facts about glaciers, 2020).
Today, glaciers cover around 10% of the Earth’s total land area. During the last ice age they covered 32% (Glacier facts: National Geographic, 2020).
North America's longest glacier is the Bering Glacier in Alaska, measuring 190 kilometers - or 118 miles - long (Facts about glaciers, 2020).
Arindom. “Alpine Glaciers: Formation, Types, Location and Facts.” Earth Eclipse, 8 July 2020, www.eartheclipse.com/geography/alpine-glaciers.html.
“Facts about Glaciers.” Facts about Glaciers | National Snow and Ice Data Center, nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/quickfacts.html.
“Glacier Facts: National Geographic.” National Geographic Kids, 30 Oct. 2020, www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/geography/physical-geography/glaciers/.
“Glacier Types: Ice Caps.” Glacier Types: Ice Caps | National Snow and Ice Data Center, nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/gallery/icecaps.html.
“Glacier.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glacier.
“Iceworms.” Alaska Centers, 16 Sept. 2019, www.alaskacenters.gov/explore/culture/ice-worms.
National Geographic Society. “Glacier.” National Geographic Society, 9 Oct. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/glacier/.
National Geographic Society. Ice Sheet. 9 Oct. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ice-sheet/.
Ross, Rachel. “What Are the Different Types of Ice Formations Found on Earth?” LiveScience, Purch, 8 Jan. 2019, www.livescience.com/64444-ice-formations.html.
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