Jump to content

List of glaciers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of glaciers
Conness Glacieron Mount Conness

Aglacier(US:/ˈɡleɪʃər/GLAY-shər) or (UK:/ˈɡlæsiə/) is a persistent body of denseicethat is constantly moving under its own weight; it forms where the accumulation ofsnowexceeds itsablation(melting andsublimation) over many years, oftencenturies.Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creatingcrevasses,seracs,and other distinguishing features. Because glacial mass is affected by long-termclimatechanges, e.g.,precipitation,mean temperature,andcloud cover,glacial mass changesare considered among the most sensitive indicators ofclimate change.There are about 198,000 to 200,000 glaciers in the world.[1]

Catalogs of glaciers include:

Glaciers by continent

[edit]

Africa

[edit]
Main article:List of glaciers in Africa
Furtwängler Glacier(foreground) as it appeared in August 2014. Behind the glacier are snowfields and the Northern Icefield.

Africa, specificallyEast Africa,has containedglacialregions, possibly as far back as thelast glacier maximum10 to 15 thousand years ago. Seasonal snow does exist on the highest peaks of East Africa[2][3]as well as in theDrakensberg Rangeof South Africa, theStormberg Mountains,and theAtlas Mountainsin Morocco. Currently, the only remaining glaciers on the continent exist onMount Kilimanjaro,Mount Kenya,and theRwenzori.[4]

Antarctica

[edit]
Main article:List of glaciers in the Antarctic
Canada Glacierin Antarctica

There are many glaciers in the Antarctic. This set of lists does not includeice sheets,ice capsorice fields,such as theAntarctic ice sheet,but includesglacialfeatures that are defined by their flow, rather than general bodies of ice. The lists includeoutlet glaciers,valley glaciers,cirque glaciers,tidewater glaciersandice streams.Ice streams are a type of glacier[5]and many of them have "glacier" in their name, e.g.Pine Island Glacier.Ice shelvesare listed separately in theList of Antarctic ice shelves.For the purposes of these lists, theAntarcticis defined as anylatitudefurther south than 60° (the continental limit according to theAntarctic Treaty System).[6]

There are also glaciers in the subantarctic. This includes onesnow field(Murray Snowfield). Snow fields are not glaciers in the strict sense of the word, but they are commonly found at theaccumulation zoneor head of a glacier.[7]For the purposes of this list, Antarctica is defined as any latitude further south than 60° (the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty).[8]

Asia

[edit]
Main article:List of glaciers in Asia

Europe

[edit]
Main article:List of glaciers in Europe

The majority of Europe's glaciers are found in theAlps,Caucasusand theScandinavian Mountains(mostly Norway) as well as in Iceland. Iceland has the largest glacier in Europe,VatnajökullGlacier, that covers between 8,100 and 8,300 km2in area and 3,100 km3in volume. Norway alone has more than 2500 glaciers (including very small ones) covering an estimated 1% of mainland Norway's surface area. Several of mainland Europe's biggest glaciers are found here including;Jostedalsbreen(the largest in mainland Europe at 487 km2),Vestre Svartisen(221 km2),Søndre Folgefonna(168 km2) andØstre Svartisen(148 km2). The two Svartisen glaciers used to be one connected entity during the Little Ice Age but has since separated.[9][10]

North America

[edit]
Main category:Glaciers of North America
Chenega Glacier,an active glacier in Alaska

There are a number of glaciers existing in North America, currently or in recent centuries. In the United States, theseglaciersare located in nine states, all in theRocky Mountainsor further west. The southernmost named glacier among them is theLilliput GlacierinTulare County,east of theCentral Valleyof California.

Mexicohas about two dozen glaciers, all of which are located onPico de Orizaba(Citlaltépetl),PopocatépetlandIztaccíhuatl,the three tallest mountains in the country.[11]

Oceania

[edit]
Further information:List of glaciers in New Zealand
Animated map of the extent of the glaciers of theCarstens Rangefrom 1850 to 2003

No glaciers remain on theAustraliamainland orTasmania.A few, like theHeard Island glaciersare located in the territory ofHeard Island and McDonald Islandsin the southernIndian Ocean.

New Guineahas thePuncak Jayaglacier.

New Zealandcontains manyglaciers,mostly located near the Main Divide of theSouthern Alpsin theSouth Island.They are classed as mid-latitude mountain glaciers. There are eighteen small glaciers in theNorth IslandonMount Ruapehu.[13]

An inventory of South Island glaciers compiled in the 1980s indicated there were about 3,155 glaciers with an area of at least one hectare (2.5 acres).[14]Approximately one sixth of these glaciers covered more than 10 hectares. These include:

South America

[edit]
Main article:List of glaciers in South America
Chimborazo

Glaciers in South America develop exclusively on theAndesand are subject of the Andes various climatic regimes namely theTropical Andes,Dry Andesand theWet Andes.Apart from this there is a wide range of latitudes on which glaciers develop from 5000 m in theAltiplanomountainsandvolcanoesto reaching sealevel as tidewater glaciers fromSan Rafael Lagoon(45° S) and southwards. South America hosts two largeice fields,theNorthernandSouthern Patagonian Ice Fields,of which the latter is the second largest contiguous body of glaciers in extrapolar regions.

Theglaciers of Venezuelaare located in the mountains of theSierra Nevada de Mérida.In 1910, maps made by the explorerAlfredo Jahnshowed the Sierra Nevada glaciers covering about 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres). Anice tradeat that time saw ice men or hieleros transporting glacier ice by mule or on foot toMéridafor sale, a six hour journey.[15]

Venezuela's glacier coverage shrank to about 280 hectares (700 acres) in 1952, and 80 hectares (200 acres) in 1985.

The last remaining glacier, located onPico Humboldt,was estimated to cover 10 hectares (25 acres) in 2011.[15]

Remote islands

[edit]
Further information:List of glaciers in the sub-Antarctic
Cook Glacier

List of longest glaciers on Earth in non-polar regions

[edit]

The following is the list of longest glaciers in the non-polar regions, generally regarded as between 60 degrees north and 60 degrees south latitude, though some definitions[16]expand it slightly.

  1. Vanch-Yakh Glacier,Tajikistan– 77 km (48 mi)[17]
  2. Siachen Glacier,India– 70 km (43 mi) when measuring fromIndira Col.[18]or 76 km (47 mi) using the longest route as is done when determining river lengths
  3. Biafo Glacier,Pakistan– 67 km (42 mi)
  4. Brüg Glacier,Chile– 66 km (41 mi)
  5. Baltoro Glacier,Pakistan– 63 km (39 mi)
  6. South Inylchek Glacier,ChinaandKyrgyzstan– 60.5 km (37.6 mi)
  7. Batura Glacier,Pakistan– 57 km (35 mi)

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^"Mapping the World's Glaciers".
  2. ^Kaser, Georg; Noggler, Bernd (1991)."Observations on Speke Glacier, Ruwenzori Range, Uganda".Journal of Glaciology.37(127): 313–318.Bibcode:1991JGlac..37..313K.doi:10.1017/S0022143000005736.
  3. ^Hastenrath, Stefan (1984).The Glaciers of Equatorial East Africa.Solid Earth Sciences Library. Kluwer Academic Publishers.ISBN978-90-277-1572-2.
  4. ^"East African Highlands | ICCI – International Cryosphere Climate Initiative".Iccinet.org.Archivedfrom the original on 2014-03-07.Retrieved2014-03-07.
  5. ^ National Snow and Ice Data Center."Types of Glacier".Archived fromthe originalon 2010-04-17.
  6. ^ The text of theAntarctic TreatyArchived2013-05-11 at theWayback Machine,article VI ( "Area covered by Treaty" ) states: "The provisions of the present Treaty shall apply to the area south of 60° South latitude"
  7. ^Dr. Sue Ferguson,United States Department of AgricultureForest Service."Types of Glacier".University of Colorado,Boulder, Colorado:National Snow and Ice Data Center.Archived fromthe originalon 17 April 2010.Retrieved1 June2010.
  8. ^Office of Polar Programs (OPP) (26 April 2010)."The Antarctic Treaty".TheNational Science Foundation,Arlington, Virginia.Archivedfrom the original on 28 June 2010.Retrieved1 June2010.
  9. ^"Bre - NVE".nve.no.Archived fromthe originalon 22 June 2017.Retrieved30 April2018.
  10. ^"Saltfjellet-Svartisen - Norske Naturperler".naturperler.Archived fromthe originalon 22 April 2016.Retrieved30 April2018.
  11. ^White, Sidney E. (2001)."Glaciers of Mexico"(PDF).Glaciers of North America.United States Geological Survey.Archived(PDF)from the original on October 17, 2012.RetrievedJuly 8,2012.
  12. ^Rignot E., Kanagaratnam P. (2006)."Changes in the velocity structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet".Science.311(5763): 986–990.Bibcode:2006Sci...311..986R.doi:10.1126/science.1121381.PMID16484490.S2CID22389368.
  13. ^Chinn, Trevor J.H., (1988),Glaciers of New ZealandArchived2008-07-06 at theWayback Machine,inSatellite image atlas of glaciers of the world,U.S. Geological Survey professional paper; 1386,ISBN0-607-71457-3.
  14. ^Chinn, Trevor J.H., (1988),Glaciers of New Zealand,inSatellite image atlas of glaciers of the world,U.S. Geological Survey professional paper; 1386,ISBN0-607-71457-3.
  15. ^abRodríguez, Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez and María Fernanda (2019-01-15)."Watching Venezuela's Last Glacier Disappear".The Atlantic.ISSN1072-7825.Retrieved2019-01-27.
  16. ^"NASA – Earth's Non-polar Glaciers and Ice Caps".nasa.gov.Archivedfrom the original on 23 May 2017.Retrieved30 April2018.
  17. ^Exact lengths are relatively easy to determine with modern maps and imagery so as to include recentglacial retreat.Measurements are from recent imagery, supplemented with Russian 1:200,000 scale topographic mapping as well as the 1990 "Orographic Sketch Map: Karakoram: Sheet 2", Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, Zurich.
  18. ^Dinesh Kumar (13 April 2014)."30 Years of the World's Coldest War".The Tribune.Chandigarh,India.Archivedfrom the original on 17 April 2014.Retrieved18 April2014.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_glaciers&oldid=1260136090"