Shown is a colour satellite image of Greenland, the northern Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean. These are called alpine glaciers alpine glaciers. But glaciers can also be found in mountain ranges on every continent. On Earth, 99 percent of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in the polar regions called continental glaciers continental glaciers. There are fewer bubbles and cracks in this layer. The lowest layer, at around 2 000 metres, is a layer of coarse-grained ice. Many tiny bubbles and cracks are in this layer. This ice is around 10 000 years old and is a fairly thick layer. Firn is about 20-30% air.īelow this, at around 230 metres below the surface, is a layer of fine-grained ice. The firn layer is similar in thickness to the loose snow layer. Granular snow is about 50% air.īelow this is a layer of firn. This is snow that is more closely packed together. This is a fairly thick layer of the glacier. The topmost layer of a glacier is loose snow. Shown is an infographic identifying the layers of a glacier and the snow and ice that form it. They are the largest source of freshwater freshwater and the second largest source of total water in the world. A glacier forms from the build up of snow snow. Glaciers Glaciers are bodies of ice that are often hundreds or thousands of years old. Let’s look next at all of the different parts of the cryosphere. Around major mountain ranges, such as the Rocky Mountains in western Canada, glaciers and ice caps are found. Southern Canada and into the United States is marked as having snow. As you go further south in North America, Europe and Asia, you go from continuously frozen permafrost to discontinuous permafrost to isolated permafrost in northern parts of Canada. The northern Arctic is mainly sea ice and Greeland is covered by an ice sheet. Some glaciers are also identified along the western coast of South America. Shown is a Fuller Project map of the Earth showing the locations of snow, sea ice, ice shelves, ice sheets, glaciers, ice caps and permafrost.Īntarctica is covered by ice sheets and is surrounded by ice shelves and sea ice with a few glaciers. Open Professional Learning × Close Professional Learning Open Educational Resources × Close Educational Resources
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