
Glacier Quick Facts | National Snow and Ice Data Center
The largest glacier, by area, is the Seller Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula, measuring over 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 square miles). The largest ice crystals that make up a glacier …
Glaciers - National Snow and Ice Data Center
What is a glacier? A glacier is an accumulation of ice and snow that slowly flows over land. At higher elevations, more snow typically falls than melts, adding to its mass. Eventually, the …
Science of Glaciers - National Snow and Ice Data Center
The Taylor Glacier is an Antarctic glacier about 54 kilometers (34 miles) long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land into the western end of Taylor Valley. — Credit: Eli Duke/Flickr. Valley …
Why Glaciers Matter - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Glacier melt delivers nutrients into lakes, rivers, and oceans. Those nutrients can drive blooms of phytoplankton—the base of aquatic and marine food chains. Meanwhile, gradual glacier melt …
Learn - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Quick facts, basic science, and information about snow, ice, and why the cryosphere matters The cryosphere includes all of the snow and ice-covered regions across the planet.
Seeking the world’s largest glaciers - National Snow and Ice Data …
Oct 31, 2019 · Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier, which is widely thought to be the largest glacier in the world, did not make the top three from either data set. This is because, according to the …
Data set update: GLIMS Glacier Database, Version 1
Apr 22, 2025 · Additional changes include reclassifying some glaciers as extinct, and updating some rock outcrops in the northeast Antarctic Peninsula to glacier outlines. You can find more …
glacier - National Snow and Ice Data Center
glacier a mass of ice that originates on land, usually having an area larger than one tenth of a square kilometer; many believe that a glacier must show some type of movement; others …
Ice Sheet Quick Facts - National Snow and Ice Data Center
Is an ice sheet different from a glacier? Ice sheets are much larger than glaciers. An ice sheet is a mass of glacial land ice, extending more than 50,000 square kilometers (20,000 square miles). …
Homepage | National Snow and Ice Data Center
An ice shelf is a large floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. Ice shelves play an important role in slowing the flow …