Glaciers
Glaciers We are all familiar with rivers. Rivers collect water and allow it to flow downhill. A glacier is like a river, but it a large slow-moving river of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow that has basically accumulated for more that a year, which slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure. The first year of snow fall is called a neve, then after the snow stay for more that one winter it’s called a firn. (Grabianowski). Extensive glaciers can be found in the Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, Canada, Russia and Alaska. One of the largest reservoirs of fresh water on earth is Glacier Ice, and is the second only to oceans as the largest reservoir of total water. (Glacier) Glaciers can be found in the Polar Regions covering a vast area but are restricted to the highest mountains in the tropics.
There are two types of Glaciers
Valley Glaciers are found in the mountains. However, larger glaciers can cover an entire mountain, or even a volcano which is known as ice caps (Glacier).
Continental Glaciers are the covers larger areas. Presently Antarctica and Greenland are the only places where this type of glaciers currently exists. These regions contain vast quantities of fresh water. The size of the Glaciers in Greenland is so large that if it starts to melt it would cause see level to rise about six meters (20 ft) around the world, (see Figure 1). And if Antarctic ice sheet melted sea level would rise up to 65 meters (210 ft) , (see Figure 2) (Glacier).
[pic] [pic] [pic]
Figure 1 - Photos of Glaciers in Greenland
Source: http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=pictures+of+Glaciers+greenland&form=QBIR&adlt_set=strict [pic] [pic] Figure 2 - Photos of Massive Glacier in Antarctic.
Source: http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=pictures+of+Glaciers+in+Antarctic.+&go=&form=QBIR&adlt_set=strict Glaciers are created in areas where the air temperature never gets warm enough
There are two types of Glaciers
Valley Glaciers are found in the mountains. However, larger glaciers can cover an entire mountain, or even a volcano which is known as ice caps (Glacier).
Continental Glaciers are the covers larger areas. Presently Antarctica and Greenland are the only places where this type of glaciers currently exists. These regions contain vast quantities of fresh water. The size of the Glaciers in Greenland is so large that if it starts to melt it would cause see level to rise about six meters (20 ft) around the world, (see Figure 1). And if Antarctic ice sheet melted sea level would rise up to 65 meters (210 ft) , (see Figure 2) (Glacier).
[pic] [pic] [pic]
Figure 1 - Photos of Glaciers in Greenland
Source: http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=pictures+of+Glaciers+greenland&form=QBIR&adlt_set=strict [pic] [pic] Figure 2 - Photos of Massive Glacier in Antarctic.
Source: http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=pictures+of+Glaciers+in+Antarctic.+&go=&form=QBIR&adlt_set=strict Glaciers are created in areas where the air temperature never gets warm enough
Cited: Glacier, September 17, http://scienceclarified.com Glacier, September 18, 2008; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/glacation Ed Grabianowski, “How Stuff Works” “How Glaciers Work” September 18, 2008 http://science.howstuffworks.com/glacier Ed Grabianowski, “How Stuff Works” “Anatomy of a Glaciers” September 18, 2008 http://science.howstuffworks.com/glacier