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
Shrinking Bylot Island glaciers tell story of climate change
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 31, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (59) |
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The U.S. Geological Survey has released the results of a long-term study of key glaciers in western North America, reporting this month that glacial shrinkage is rapid and accelerating and a result of climate ...
Small glaciers -- not large -- account for most of Greenland's recent loss of ice, study shows
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 15, 2008 |
4.3 / 5 (32) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The recent dramatic melting and breakup of a few huge Greenland glaciers have fueled public concerns over the impact of global climate change, but that isn't the island's biggest problem.
Ghost alps of Antarctica are glimpsed after 14 million years
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 03, 2009 |
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Millions of years ago, rivers ran in Antarctica through craggy mountain valleys that were strangely similar to the European Alps of today, Chinese and British scientists reported on Wednesday.
Most Alaskan glaciers retreating, thinning, and stagnating
Oct 06, 2008 |
3.3 / 5 (19) |
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Most glaciers in every mountain range and island group in Alaska are experiencing significant retreat, thinning or stagnation, especially glaciers at lower elevations, according to a new book published by the U.S. Geological ...
Dust may settle unanswered questions on Antarctica
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 29, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (13) |
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Dust trapped deep in Antarctic ice sheets is helping scientists unravel details of past climate change.
Life's Ancient Island in the Ice
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 29, 2009 |
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During the last ice age, massive glaciers covered much of our planet. However, a region of Alaska, Siberia and the Canadian Yukon remained ice-free. This region, known as Beringia, supported unique organisms ...
Southern glaciers grow out of step with North
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 30, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (11) |
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The vast majority of the world’s glaciers are retreating as the planet gets warmer. But a few, including ones south of the equator, in South America and New Zealand, are inching forward.
Global glacier melt continues
Jan 29, 2009 |
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Glaciers around the globe continue to melt at high rates. Tentative figures for the year 2007, of the World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, indicate a further loss of average ice thickness ...
Ancient high-altitude trees grow faster as temperatures rise
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 16, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (11) |
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PIC=32536:left]Increasing temperatures at high altitudes are fueling the post-1950 growth spurt seen in bristlecone pines, the world's oldest trees, according to new research.
Antarctic glacier thinning at alarming rate
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 14, 2009 |
3.5 / 5 (13) |
4
(PhysOrg.com) -- The thinning of a gigantic glacier in Antarctica is accelerating, scientists warned today.
'Benchmark glaciers' shrinking at faster rate, study finds
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 07, 2009 |
3.9 / 5 (10) |
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Climate change is shrinking three of the nation's most studied glaciers at an accelerated rate, and government scientists say that finding bolsters global concerns about rising sea levels and the availability of fresh drinking ...
Volcanoes cool the tropics, say researchers
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 05, 2009 |
3.1 / 5 (12) |
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Climate researchers have shown that big volcanic eruptions over the past 450 years have temporarily cooled weather in the tropics—but suggest that such effects may have been masked in the 20th century by rising ...
NASA Ice Satellite Maps Profound Polar Thinning
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 24, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (11) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have used NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) to compose the most comprehensive picture of changing glaciers along the coast of the Greenland and Antarctic ...
Argentine glacier advances despite global warming
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 14, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
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(AP) -- Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier is one of only a few ice fields worldwide that have withstood rising global temperatures.
Tibet drought worst in 30 years: Chinese state media
Jun 20, 2009 |
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A drought in Tibet has intensified into the region's worst in three decades, leaving thousands of hectares parched and killing more than 13,000 head of cattle, China's state media said Saturday.
