The Theory behind Glaciers

As a framework for researching Glaciers, I am going to use a tool that my teachers used during my education. It was very imaginatively named the 5W's, I felt that it was very beneficial for me in both learning and remembering topics. It allowed me to have the same framework for every topic covered and all I had to remember was the 5 W questions.

1. What is it?
2. Where is it/ where did it occur?
3. When did it happen?
4. Why did it happen?
5. Who did it affect?

I know that some of the answers to the questions will over lap but the questions can be altered slightly to the specific topic that is being covered.

What is a Glacier?

Glaciers occur after many years of fallen snow in the same location, each new layer of snow compresses down on the previous layer to form large ice masses. Due to gravity and the sheer mass of these glaciers they flow like very slow rivers which cause changes in landscapes,which will be discussed later in another post. Also glaciers can vary in size, from relatively small glaciers to glaciers that are around hundred kilometres long.

Where do Glaciers occur?

As discussed in the previous post, using the map from the National Snow and Ice Date Center as a reference we discovered where Glaciers are distributed throughout the world. The locations that were highlighted support the theory of what conditions are needed for Glaciers to develop.                                  

For Glaciers to occur there needs to be a high snowfall in the winter and cool temperatures during the summer. This allows the snow to settle on the ground for the compression to take place over many years. The cool temperatures mean that the snowfall will neither melt, evaporate or allow 'calving' to take place (this will be explained in another section of my blog).

For the growth of Glaciers the amount of precipitation is very important. Even where the temperatures in an area may be very low throughout the year, if the area also has low precipitation levels the growth of the Glacier will be slow.


The next installment will look at the types of Glaciers and why Glaciers are around ...