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What is a glacier? |
Everything Water
Glaciers are large bodies of ice that form in places where more snow falls from the sky than melts on the ground. As you can imagine, the snow starts to stack up! When new layers of snow fall, pressure builds and the snowy layers underneath squeeze together and turn to ice.
Glaciers form high in the mountains or at the cold polar regions of the Earth. Some glaciers are large sheets of ice that move out in all directions, while others follow a path. Some glaciers are even connected to other glaciers! Most of our planet’s fresh water can be found in glaciers.
Glaciers move slowly over the land, making their chilly mark on the ground they pass over. Brrrrr!
These icy formations can really make an impression! As glaciers glide across the land, they pick up rock and other small pieces from the ground. They can wear away the land, creating valleys and other indentations, such as bowl-shaped cirques. Glaciers also leave rock and other debris behind.
