Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Iceland Glaciers

When my wife and I visited Iceland in July we had the wonderful opportunity of stepping foot on a glacier.  I've seen a glacier off in the distance, but I had never stood on one until this year.




Glaciers are produced by the slow accumulation of snow over many years.  As it accumulates, pressure packs it into a large ice mass.  Because of the mass, glaciers have the ability to slowly move, much like a river, but much more slowly.  

Glaciers cover about 10% of the Earth's land mass, down from around 30% during the last Ice Age.  However, due to climate change and rising global temperatures, glaciers across the globe are very quickly shrinking and disappearing over a period of just a couple of decades.  Soon glaciers will be few and far between on the Earth.  Places like National Glacier Park in Montana may be glacier free.  

If you've never seen a glacier, do so very soon.  If you wait, it will be much harder to easily reach one.

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