Why Glaciers Matter - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Glacial landforms. Fjords, glaciated valleys, and horns are all erosional types of landforms, created when a glacier cuts away at the landscape. Other types of glacial landforms are created by the features and sediments left behind after a glacier retreats.
Science of Glaciers - National Snow and Ice Data Center
If all the lost or gained glacial ice were converted to water and spread evenly over glacier surface area, the depth of that water layer is the water equivalence. In the 2021 State of the Climate , the American Meteorological Society reported that average annual glacier mass balance in 2020/2021 was -900 millimeters (35.4 inches) water equivalent.
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 ...
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 ...
Glaciers - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Glaciers also exist on the fringes of ice sheets. Ice sheets cover entire continents. During the Last Glacial Maximum, roughly 20,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered much of North America, and its weight created basins that now hold the Great Lakes. Currently, there are only two ice sheets on Earth: the Antarctic and Greenland Ice ...
Learn - National Snow and Ice Data Center
The cryosphere includes all of the snow and ice-covered regions across the planet. Explore our scientific content about what makes up this frozen realm, its importance to Earth's people, plants and animals, and what climate change means for the cryosphere and the world at large.
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 ...
The story is in the ice: Documenting climate change through the …
2024年8月12日 · From 2007 to 2022, renowned photographer James Balog documented glacial change around the world through a project called the Extreme Ice Survey. One and a half million images showcasing climate change in real time are now stored and managed at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
glacial striations - National Snow and Ice Data Center
glacial striations. grooves or gouges cut into the bedrock by gravel and rocks carried by glacial ice and meltwater; also called glacial grooves. Striated Graywackie, Yale Glacier, Alaska. 1997. Parallel striations and bedrock fracture trends (across the left side of the image) are clearly visible in this photo. Tom Lowell, University of ...
Quick Facts About Ice Shelves - National Snow and Ice Data Center
The potential costs associated with damage to harbors and ports caused by sea level rise could be as high as $111.6 billion by 2050 and $367.2 billion by the end of the century. In total, Greenland contains enough ice to raise sea level by 7 meters (23 feet), and Antarctica holds enough ice to raise sea level by 57 meters (187 feet).