Glaciers are one of the many unique landforms on this earth. They are constantly moving and changing the landscape. They can be dangerous, yet very beneficial to human. Even though we may not realize it, glaciers have a huge impact on this world. Glaciers form when more snow piles up than the amount of snow that has melted. Once, it has fallen, the snow begins to compress. The snow changes from fluffy crystals to hard ice pellets. After new snow has fallen and covered ice pellets, the hard snow becomes more compressed, forming grainy ice called firn(the state between snow and glacier ice), as demonstrated in Figure 1. Years go by as layers of firn build up on top of each other. Once the ice has grown thick enough, the firn blends into a giant mass of ice. The process takes more than a hundred years for most glaciers (National Geographic). …show more content…
Although most glaciers are found in Antarctica and Greenland, they are also found on nearly every continent, including Africa. The NSIDC also reports that because certain climatic and geographic conditions must be present for glaciers to exist, they are commonly found above snowline: regions of high snowfall in winter and cool temperatures in summer (2004). That condition permits more snow to build on the glacier in the winter, which will then melt from the glacier in the summer. It is why many glaciers are found in mountainous areas and Polar Regions. Snow lines occur at different altitudes. In Washington, it is around 5,500 feet, in Africa it is more than 16,732 feet, and it is at sea level in Antarctica. The amount of snowfall a glacier receives is very important to its survival, which is why some cold regions, like Siberia, have almost no glaciation; there is not enough snowfall (NSIDC,