Glaciers are found in the mountains.
These are huge piles of dense ice, water, or rock that move down a slope, under the influence of gravity and its weight.
The word ‘Glacier’ is derived from the Latin word meaning “Ice”.
2.4 % of the total water on Earth’s surface is in the form of Glaciers. They are formed in those areas where snow accumulates without melting for a long period.
Glaciers are formed only on the land surface, and the glacial ice is the largest storehouse of freshwater on the Earth.
Important factors that determine the size and distribution of glaciers are Latitude, topography, global and regional climate patterns, etc.
There are different types of glaciers like;
(1)Ice Sheets
(2) Ice Fields and Ice Claps
(3)Cirque
(4) Piedmont Glaciers
(5)Tidewater and Freshwater glaciers
- The largest glacier in India is the Gangotri glacier in Uttarakhand.
- The process of formation, growth, and flow of glaciers is known as glaciation.
- 91% of the glaciers of the World are concentrated in Antarctica, and 8% are in Greenland. Every continent in the World, except Australia, has glaciers.
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