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.
Glaciers - National Snow and Ice Data Center
A glacier is an accumulation of ice and snow that slowly flows over land. At higher elevations, more snow typically falls than melts, adding to its mass. Eventually, the surplus of built-up ice begins to flow downhill. At lower elevations, there is usually a higher rate of melt or icebergs break off that removes ice mass.
valley glacier | National Snow and Ice Data Center
valley glacier. a mountain glacier whose flow is confined by valley walls. Topic(s): glaciers. Subscribe ...
Glacier Quick Facts | National Snow and Ice Data Center
A glacier is an accumulation of ice and snow that slowly flows over land. Alpine glaciers are frozen rivers of ice, slowly flowing under their own weight down mountainsides and into valleys. Ice sheets exist only on Greenland and Antarctica, and they spread out in broad domes in multiple directions. A group of people explore the Perito Moreno ...
Why Glaciers Matter - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Why they matter. Glaciers, slow-moving rivers of ice, have sculpted mountains and carved valleys throughout Earth's history. They continue to flow and shape the landscape in many places today. But glaciers affect much more than the landscape. Glacier melt delivers nutrients into lakes, rivers, and oceans. Those nutrients can drive blooms of ...
World Glacier Inventory - NSIDC
Search by glacier name or number or by glacier parameters. Note: If you search by glacier name or number, you cannot refine your search by addtional parameters. This search will return only those records that exactly match your entry. Not all glaciers have names, but all glaciers have numbers. Note ...
What are glacial lakes? | National Snow and Ice Data Center
2022年2月15日 · A glacial lake is a body of water that originates from a glacier. It typically forms at the foot of a glacier, but may form on, in, or under it. As Earth’s climate warms, the world’s glaciers are shrinking, increasing freshwater outputs to all kinds of glacial lakes. Some communities depend on glacial meltwater for seasonal irrigation or ...
Ice Sheet Quick Facts - National Snow and Ice Data Center
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. Now, Earth has two ice sheets: one covers ...
Ice Sheets - National Snow and Ice Data Center
The Greenland and East Antarctic Ice Sheets are roughly 3,000 to 4,000 meters (10,000 to 13,000 feet) high at their summits. The highest areas on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Peninsula are about 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) above sea level. Ice sheet flow is a function of surface slope, ice thickness, and whether the ice can ...
glacial erratic - National Snow and Ice Data Center
glacial erratic. a boulder swept from its place of origin by glacier advance or retreat and deposited elsewhere as the glacier melted; after glacial melt, the boulder might be stranded in a field or forest where no other rocks of its type or size exist. Erratic boulder, northeastern Manitoba, Canada. A sense of the size of the glacial erratic ...