What is the main difference between ice sheets and glaciers?

Glaciers are found in Arctic areas, Antarctica, and on high mountains in temperate and even tropical climates. Glaciers that extend in continuous sheets and cover a large landmass, such as Antarctica or Greenland, are called ice sheets. If they are similar but smaller, they are termed ice caps.

What is ice sheet mass balance?

The mass balance of an ice sheet is the difference between its total snow input and the total loss through melting, ablation, or calving. So long as an ice sheet gains an equal mass through snowfall as it loses through melt, ablation, and calving from glaciers and ice shelves, it is said to be in balance.

What is the difference between ice sheets and icebergs?

What is an iceberg? When an ice sheet meets the ocean, chunks of ice at the seaward end of the glacier will break off over time. This process is called calving. The calved masses of glacial ice are referred to as icebergs.

What are the 3 types of ice masses?

Glaciers are classifiable in three main groups: (1) glaciers that extend in continuous sheets, moving outward in all directions, are called ice sheets if they are the size of Antarctica or Greenland and ice caps if they are smaller; (2) glaciers confined within a path that directs the ice movement are called mountain …

What is the difference between glacier or ice sheet surface mass balance and total mass balance?

What’s the difference between glacier or ice sheet surface mass balance and total mass balance? It does not include ice lost in the lower margins due to calving and thinning from contact with warm ocean waters. The surface mass balance defines the net mass gain or loss of the ice in contact with the atmosphere only.

What are some characteristics of glaciers and glacial areas?

What are some characteristics of glaciers and glacial areas? Glaciers may fracture, forming crevasses. Glaciers flow. Glaciers form where snow and ice accumulate faster than they melt.

Are glaciers ice sheets?

Ice sheets are large masses of glacial ice, also known as continental glaciers, that cover at least 20,000 square miles of land. Ice sheets form from partially melted snow that has accumulated over thousands of years. Each layer of snow slowly builds a thick and dense ice mass.

How do ice sheet glaciers form?

Glaciers begin to form when snow remains in the same area year-round, where enough snow accumulates to transform into ice. Each year, new layers of snow bury and compress the previous layers. This compression forces the snow to re-crystallize, forming grains similar in size and shape to grains of sugar.

What are the components of glacier movement quizlet?

Glacial snow and ice melts and the water flows into cracks in the rocks.

What is the difference between among and ice sheet sea ice and an ice shelf?

An ice shelf is a floating extension of land ice. The Antarctic continent is surrounded by ice shelves. The difference between sea ice and ice shelves is that sea ice is free-floating; the sea freezes and unfreezes each year, whereas ice shelves are firmly attached to the land.

What are sheet glaciers?

In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi). Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers.