Whooo! It’s so chilly outside! Thanks for the hot chocolate. My fingers feel frozen! It’s snowing today, and it snowed a few days ago. When it stays this cold, all that snow can turn into layers of ice, kind of like a glacier!
Glaciers are amazing! They are huge and hold about three-quarters of the Earth’s freshwater. Some glaciers are thousands of years old. They can grow, shrink, and even move around! Usually, glaciers move very slowly, like a slow, icy river. But sometimes, they can move quickly too!
Glaciers are made of many layers of snow. When a place gets a lot of snow and stays cold for a long time, the weight of all that snow presses down on the snow at the bottom. This turns it into a big, thick, heavy mass of ice! It can take over a hundred years for layers of snow to become a glacier.
The world’s biggest glacier is the Lambert-Fisher Glacier in Antarctica. It’s 400 kilometers long and 100 kilometers wide! Some glacier ice in Antarctica is 5 kilometers thick. Glaciers cover about one-tenth of the Earth and are found on every continent, even in places with tall, snowy mountains.
The Earth is around 4.5 billion years old and goes through cycles of hot and cold, like a washing machine with long cycles. Thousands of years ago, during an ice age, gigantic glaciers covered about a third of the Earth’s land. Some of those glaciers are still around today, but they’re much smaller now.
Glaciers grow slowly, adding snow in the winter, especially at the highest parts. When a glacier gets really big, it’s also very heavy. The ice at the bottom can’t hold up all the weight, so it flows out and moves forward, or advances. Sometimes, glaciers retreat or move back, usually when more ice melts in the summer than builds up in the winter.
When glaciers move, it tells us something about changes in the Earth. Scientists can study glacier ice to learn about what the Earth was like hundreds or thousands of years ago. Glaciers are sensitive to environmental changes. Recently, many glaciers have been retreating more than growing because the Earth is getting warmer.
Glaciers melting can be helpful because they provide water for rivers, which people, plants, and animals need. Some scientists and engineers use the energy from melting glaciers to generate electricity. But if glaciers melt too much, it can cause sea levels to rise, leading to problems.
Glaciers are fascinating and important! Let’s hope they stick around for a long time. Thanks for learning with us! If you want to keep having fun and learning, hit the subscribe button, and we’ll see you next time!
Ice Cube Glacier Experiment: Create your own mini glacier using ice cubes! Place several ice cubes in a bowl and let them sit in a warm room. Observe how they slowly melt and move. Discuss with your friends or family how this is similar to how real glaciers move and change over time. What happens to the water as the ice melts? How does this relate to glaciers melting in nature?
Glacier Movement Dance: Pretend to be a glacier! Start by moving very slowly across the room, just like a glacier moves slowly over land. Then, speed up a little to show how glaciers can sometimes move faster. Imagine you’re carrying rocks and dirt with you as you move. How does it feel to be a glacier? What do you think happens to the land underneath you?
Glacier Observation Walk: Take a walk outside and look for signs of water and ice. Can you find any small streams or puddles? Imagine how these might be like tiny glaciers. Discuss with a friend or family member how glaciers provide water for rivers and why this is important for plants, animals, and people. How do you think the environment would change if there were no glaciers?
