Glaciers, for laymen like me

You’re looking at a glacier here and I hope you’ll look at more with me. They’re part of the reason I made the trip.

A glacier forms when snow accumulates faster than it melts. To earn the title, there is probably a minimum size or age. Anyway, Alaska has around 100,000 glaciers and the vast majority have been in retreat since the last ice age.

Some glaciers are kilometres deep/high and consequently very, very heavy. Lower levels are greatly compressed and on an incline, the whole massive structure slides down. Moving ice collects rock debris which grinds on further rock. These forces gouge out valleys and grind down mountains. Rock powder as fine as talcum is carried off in glacier-fed streams.

When a glacier descends in to the sea it is called a tide-water glacier. These are visually spectacular because they shed the usual grimy, weathered exterior as their leading edge breaks off, calving in to the sea. Ice that has been under great pressure shows deep blue and massive chunks (ala Titanic) take the plunge.

Lots of glaciers in the same area also influence local weather and this is seldom for the better!

Apologies if you knew this stuff already.