Glacier - Simple English Wikipedia

# Glacier

### From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

The Aletsch glacier, in Switzerland, as a panorama

A glacier is a large body of ice and snow. It is formed on land, and moves because of gravity. A glacier forms because in a particular spot, the snow and ice does not all melt in summer. The next winter, more ice and snow are added to the deposit. After many years of this happening, the glacier will start growing very big. This can take a long time, normally hundreds or thousands of years. Glaciers will only form in places that are cold enough and get enough snow over time.

There are two kinds of glaciers: continental glaciers and alpine, or mountain, glaciers. Continental glaciers are glaciers that spread out over a lot of land. They showed up mostly during the Ice Ages a long time ago, but there are still some continental glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica. Alpine glaciers are smaller than continental glaciers and form in mountain areas.

Glaciers are very important because they affect the environment a lot. They do this because they are very big and heavy, so they erode mountains and land when they move and scratch the rock they sit on. Also, since they froze long ago, stuff stuck inside is kept in good condition for scientists to look at. Nowadays, glaciers have been melting more than they used to because the climate is changing and global warming is happening.

Glaciers are the largest deposits of fresh water on Earth. The largest bodies of water watsoever are the oceans.

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Category: Geography

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