Related topics: climate change , global warming , ice , ice sheet
Glacier
hideA glacier is a large mass of ice moving slowly over some land surface or down a valley, formed over long periods from the accumulation of snow in areas where the amount of snow that falls exceeds the amount that melts. The word glacier comes from French via the Vulgar Latin glacia, and ultimately from Latin glacies meaning ice.
Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, and second only to oceans as the largest reservoir of total water. Glaciers cover vast areas of the polar regions and are found in mountain ranges of every continent except Australia, as well as in New Zealand. In the tropics glaciers are restricted to the highest mountains. The processes and landforms caused by glaciers and related to them are referred to as glacial. The process of glacier growth and establishment is called glaciation. Glaciers are sensitive monitors of climate conditions and are crucial to both world water resources and sea level variation.
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News tagged with glaciers
Hypoxia increases as climate warms
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (6) |
2
A new study of Pacific Ocean sediments off the coast of Chile has found that offshore waters experienced systematic oxygen depletion during the rapid warming of the Antarctic following the last "glacial maximum" period 20,000 ...
Greenland glaciers: What lies beneath
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
3.6 / 5 (5) |
1
Scientists who study the melting of Greenland's glaciers are discovering that water flowing beneath the ice plays a much more complex role than they previously imagined.
A unique geography -- and soot and dust -- conspire against Himalayan glaciers
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
4 / 5 (2) |
1
"So many disparate elements, both natural and man-made, converge in the Himalayas," said William Lau, a climatologist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "There's no other place in the ...
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Not easy being green
Dec 18, 2009 |
3.7 / 5 (3) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- It was a battle to save a cherished piece of nature from the forces of economic growth. Preservationists formed groups to present their case, and public figures across the country spoke up ...
New results from a terra-ific decade in orbit
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
December 18, 2009, marks the tenth year since the launch of Terra, one of NASA's "flagship" Earth observing satellites. But the decade is more than just a mechanical milestone. With each additional day and ...
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