Gorgeous grand great gigantic glaciers

Perito Moreno Glacier

Over a short amount of time we have been lucky enough to see lots of glaciers and have visited a glacerium in El Calefate which gave us lots of facts. It is my turn to write a blog and I’m writing a fact report so here goes………………

Glaciers are large flowing rivers of ice, they are formed by snow falling and freezing into ice and more snow falling and squishing it. If the snow doesn’t melt in summer and more snow falls in winter squashing the snow, it then makes Firn. More snow and Firn makes a sheet of ice. The glacier then is carried down the mountain because of its own weight.

A glacier has 3 main parts,

Accumulation area

Ablation area

Balance area

These parts are important, the accumulation area is at the top and gets all the snow, the ablation area is at the snout (end), it is the area that has all the melting and evaporating happening and last of all the balance area or the line of Equilibrium, it is in the middle and is neither growing or shrinking. Glaciers can either be retreating or advancing; most glaciers in the world are retreating because of global warming.

Glaciers cover 6million miles of the world’s surface and holds 75% of the world’s fresh water. They move by sliding on water that might have come from melting snow of water that got in. Glaciers appear blue because the ice has become dense and has forced the little air bubbles up from between the crystals. The dense ice absorbs all the different colours and reflects blue because blue has more energy.

A glacier is a very dangerous thing to walk on because there are deep, hidden holes called crevasses. At the top, where the ice meets the rock there is a very big crevasse called a Bergschrund. A glacier has lots of different shapes, at the front there are spiky bits called ‘seracs’. When a piece falls off a glacier it is called carving, the piece is called an iceberg. An iceberg has 10% above water and 90% under!!!!

There are lots of types of glaciers, here are a few……….

Ice sheets = Enormous areas of ice and snow.

Ice shelves = An ice sheet that goes over sea and floats.

Ice cap = Miniature Ice sheet.

Mountain glacier = Develop in high mountain region.

Glacier Valley = Spill down Valleys looking like giant, white tongues.

Piedmont glacier = Happens when a steep valley glacier spills down onto flat ground.

Cirque glacier = Occupy bowl like hollows.

Hanging glacier = Clings to steep mountains.

Tide water glacier = Valley glacier that reaches the sea.

The nearest glacier to Wales is in the French Alps and Pirenese.

We went to visit a HUGE Glacier in El Calefate, it is called Perito Moreno and covers 97sq miles and is 19 miles in length!!!!! It is 3 miles wide and has an average height of 60ms!!!!!!! It is one of the few glaciers that are advancing.

All in all glaciers are AMAZING!!!!!!!!