Glaciers
to Download a VIDEO CLIP on Glaciers. (5.75MB AVI)Glaciers are huge masses of ice that have been created throughout the years. Over long periods of time, the large amounts of snow that fall in the mountains continue to accumulate as more snow falls than melts. The weight of this huge accumulation creates massive pressure on the bottom of the snow pack. The result is the formation of thin layers of ice which form at the bottom of this accumulation. This creates a sliding surface for these massive formations of ice. Each season "advancing" glaciers continue to increase in size as more snow continues to fall than melts.
Icefields cover nearly 29,000 square miles of Alaska comprising only 4 percent of the total land. There are more than 10,000 glaciers in Alaska and one of them is larger than Rhode Island. Alaska has 128 times more glaciers than all the glaciers in the "lower 48" combined. The Malaspina Glacier in Alaska is the largest glacier at 850 square miles.
A beautiful effect exhibited by this large glacier is the deep shades of blue in the ice. Similar to all minerals, glacial ice has a crystalline structure that absorbs or reflects light. Whereas water that is frozen in an ice cube tray is allowed to expand, ice in an ice field does not. More than 100 feet of snow annually falls in the mountains. The tremendous pressure turns the snow into ice crystals and squeezes out air bubbles. So as a result, when light strikes the crystals, it's absorbed except for short, blue light waves, which are reflected back. Interestingly, three-fourths of all the fresh water in Alaska is stored in its glaciers.
Photo by: AK Division of Tourism
Video Clip by: Alaska Video Postcards
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