Science of Glaciers - National Snow and Ice Data Center
The Taylor Glacier is an Antarctic glacier about 54 kilometers (34 miles) long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land into the western end of Taylor Valley. — Credit: Eli Duke/Flickr. Valley commonly originate from mountain glaciers or icefields, these glaciers spill down valleys, looking much like giant tongues.
Glacier Quick Facts | National Snow and Ice Data Center
Icebergs are large floating chunks of ice, detached from a glacier, such as an alpine glacier or ice sheet, and carried out to the ocean. The word iceberg literally means ice mountain, berg borrowed from German. Icebergs come in all shapes and sizes, from ice-cube-sized chunks to ice islands the size of a small country.
Why Glaciers Matter - National Snow and Ice Data Center
In high mountain regions, glaciers can be the root cause of several natural catastrophes. Although it is not uncommon for a glacier to have a small lake of meltwater near its terminus, extreme or unusually fast melting, or ice or rock avalanches into these lakes, can cause water to overflow their barriers and cause flooding downstream.
Glaciers - National Snow and Ice Data Center
An ice cap is a dome-shaped glacier with an area less than 50,000 square kilometers (19,300 square miles) that flows in all directions and covers much of the underlying topography. Ice caps form in high-latitude polar and subpolar mountain regions.
mountain glacier | National Snow and Ice Data Center
Taku Glacier winds through the mountains of southeastern Alaska, calving small icebergs into Taku Inlet. This photograph dates from 1929. U. S. Navy, archived at the World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, CO
World Glacier Inventory - NSIDC
Glacier number Glacier Parameters Search Search by geographic cooridnates (lat/lon), altitude/size/length, data contributor, and glacier features such as primary class, form, frontal characteristic, longitudinal profile, major source of nourishment, and tongue activity.
piedmont glacier - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Agassiz Glacier is the smaller glacier to the left. The Malaspina Glacier is one of the most famous examples of this type of glacier, and is the largest piedmont glacier in the world. Spilling out of the Seward Ice Field (visible near the top of the photograph), it covers over 5,000 square kilometers as it spreads across the coastal plain.
Ice Sheet Quick Facts - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Is an ice sheet different from a glacier? Ice sheets are much larger than glaciers. An ice sheet is a mass of glacial land ice, extending more than 50,000 square kilometers (20,000 square miles). Ice sheets can cover underlying canyons and mountain ranges. During the last ice age, ice sheets also covered much of North America and Scandinavia.
alpine glacier - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Muddy River Glacier carves its way through forested mountains near Frederick Sound in southeast Alaska. Typical of mountain glaciers, it is constrained on all sides by mountainous terrain. U. S. Navy. Archived at the World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, CO
What is the Karakoram Anomaly? - National Snow and Ice Data …
Feb 22, 2024 · Most mountain glaciers outside the polar regions are losing ice, but in the Karakoram Range, glaciers have experienced modest gains. Glaciologists have proposed multiple explanations, currently favoring weather patterns unique to the region. Glaciologists have also pondered how long the anomaly is likely to persist in a warming climate.