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
Antarctica served as climatic refuge in Earth's greatest extinction event
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
10 hours ago |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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A new fossil species suggests that some land animals may have survived the end-Permian extinction by living in cooler climates in Antarctica. Researchers have identified a distant relative of mammals that apparently survived ...
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'Super-river' formed the English Channel
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
19 hours ago |
4.4 / 5 (12) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Anglo-French scientists studying sedimentary deposits in the Bay of Biscay have concluded that Britain and France were separated by a "super-river" during three periods of glaciations, ...
Scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 29, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
0
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane ...
First comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 01, 2009 |
3.7 / 5 (11) |
3
The first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate and its relationship to the global climate system is published this week by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The review - Antarctic ...
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