Quick Glacier Facts
- Presently, 10% of land area is covered with glaciers.
- Glaciers store about 75% of the world's freshwater.
- Glacierized areas cover over 15,000,000 square kilometers.
- Antarctic ice is over 4,200 meters thick in some areas.
- In the United States, glaciers cover over 75,000 square kilometers, with most
of the glaciers located in Alaska.
- During the last Ice Age, glaciers covered 32% of the total land area.
- If all land ice melted, sea level would rise approximately 70 meters worldwide.
- Glacier ice crystals can grow to be as large as baseballs.
- The land underneath parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be up to 2.5
kilometers below sea level, due to the weight of the ice.
- North America's longest glacier is the Bering Glacier in Alaska, measuring 204
kilometers long.
- The Malaspina Glacier in Alaska is the world's largest piedmont glacier,
covering over 8,000 square kilometers and measuring over 193 kilometers across
at its widest point.
- Glacial ice often appears blue because ice absorbs all other colors and
reflects blue.
- The Kutiah Glacier in Pakistan holds the record for the fastest glacial surge.
In 1953, it raced more than 12 kilometers in three months, averaging about 112
meters per day.
- In Washington state alone, glaciers provide 470 billion gallons of water each
summer.
- Antarctic ice shelves may calve icebergs that are over 80 kilometers long.
- Almost 90% of an iceberg is below water--only about 10% shows above water.
- The Antarctic ice sheet has been in existence for at least 40 million years.
- From the 17th century to the late 19th century, the world experienced a
"Little Ice Age", when temperatures were consistently cool enough for
significant glacier advances.
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