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Glaciers

Glaciers are formed from compressed, frozen snow accumulated over many years. They tend to form on mountains and the polar regions where the temperature remains low enough over the years to prevent the ice from melting.

The frozen snow is changed to ice by the pressure of the weight of the snow that falls every year. The massive weight of a glacier will be pulled by gravity down the mountain. The face of the glacier eventually reaches a point where the temperature is high enough to melt the ice. In some cases the glacier reaches the sea which stops it going any further.

Inlandeis Russels Gletscher Author: Saperaud GNU Free Documentation License 1.2

Glaciers tend not to form on steeper slopes, but a glacier can expand and move downhill.

The glaciers we have at the moment are thought to be the remnants from the last Ice Age. If this is correct then the world is going through a warming process because we have many glaciers that are currently melting significantly. This presumably has not happened since the last ice age!

During the last Ice Age it is thought that 30% of the world was covered by glaciers. Currently 10% of the planet Earth is covered by glaciers.