Glaciers/Ice Sheets

Glaciers/Ice Sheets RSS Feed

Glaciers are masses of land ice, formed by the further recrystallization of firn, flowing continuously from higher to lower elevations. Ice sheets are a continuous sheet of land ice that covers a very large area and moves outward in many directions. This type of ice mass is so thick as to mask the land surface contours, in contrast to the smaller and thinner highland ice. The continental glacier of Greenland is sometimes called the Inland Ice. This term is often used to describe the great ice masses that characterized the ice ages.

 

Definition source: United States Geological Survey

You Might Also Be Interested In

Filter By

Content type
Taken on March 3, 2000, this image shows the Ross Ice Shelf prior to the calving of iceberg B15.
Article
The image above shows a glacier
Article
The image above shows a spatial coverage map of the Greenland Ice Sheet using SEASAT and GEOSAT altimetry
Article
The view of Antarctica, typically a very cloudy continent, was made clear in 1996 by a satellite image map
Article
The image above shows the Greenland Ice Sheet
Article