GGR100H1 Chapter 17: Chapter 17- Textbook
Document Summary
A glacier is a large mass of ice resting on land or floating as an ice shelf in the sea adjacent to land. They form by the continual accumulation of snow that recrystallizes under its own weight into an ice mass. They move slowly under the pressure of their own great weight and the pull of gravity. They move slowly in streamlike patterns, merging as tributaries into large rivers of ice. Glaciers form in areas of permanent snow, both at high latitudes and at high elevations at any latitude. A snowline is the lowest elevation where snow can survive year-round; specifically it is the lowest line where inter snow accumulation persists throughout the summer. Glacier in a mountain range is an alpine glacier or mountain glacier. One prominent type is valley glacier, literally a river of ice confined within a valley that originally was formed by stream action.
