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Why Do Glaciers

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Mendenhall Glacier Report Paragraphs- Suraj Bansal

Glaciers are a dynamic perennial accumulations of ice that, together with ice sheets, represent a significant portion of Earth's water and a volatile element in the changing climate. Although sea level rise is a significant consequence of glacial change, the instability poses numerous hazards, though the impacts are not as widespread. Glaciers are continuously changing in response to changes in temperature, intermittent precipitation levels and other geological processes. Glacier ice crystals form slowly through the metamorphism of snow to "firn" crystalline, known as bubbly ice. Glaciologists recognize nine types of glaciers: continental ice sheets, ice caps, ice fields, piedmont glaciers, …show more content…

A glacier is a balancing act between snow buildup and loss. As the ice moves down the slope, it passes a point where snowfall no longer accumulates, and it begins to waste. Over time the glacier begins to end; either at some point on land where the mass of ice cannot move forward any further, or into the water as a tidewater glacier. These glaciers generally lose a lot of their mass by calving; chunks breaking off in the water. Although a small portion of the total surface ice, glaciers hold a significant amount of water, and are particularly fragile with short term climate changes when compared to ice sheets. Ice sheets are large, continuous heat-sinks that should take a while to feel any impact from rising annual temperatures – however, ice sheets have their own potential instabilities. Glaciers make up a fraction of the total ice mass and it is divided up into a multitude of glaciers, so is going to react to changing temperatures on a shorter time frame than the ice sheets. What’s more, up to about 0.4 meters sea level equivalent of water might be entering the oceans sooner than later, although the inventory of worldwide glaciers is limited so the exact amount of ice is not known. A change in the seasonal flux of water into the local environments is going to be felt by a good number of

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