Concept information
Preferred term
glacier
Definition
- A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform and flow under stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses, seracs, and other distinguishing features. They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques, moraines, or fjords. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that forms on the surface of bodies of water. On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets (also known as continental glaciers) in the polar regions, but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent other than the Australian mainland, including Oceania's high-latitude oceanic island countries such as New Zealand. Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, holding with ice sheets about 69 percent of the world's freshwater. (Adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier)
Broader concept
Narrower concepts
In other languages
-
French
URI
http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/QX8-9836JNKX-K
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