Glaciers are large bodies of ice that flow downhill in response to the stress caused by gravitational forces. They form in areas where tem- peratures are sufficiently low to allow snow to persist from year to year, enabling thick banks of snow to accumulate which will eventually form glacial ice. Glaciers slowly deform and flow under stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses and other distinguishing features. They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques, moraines etc. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that forms on the surface of bodies of water. Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, holding with ice sheets about 69 percent of the world’s freshwater. Many glaciers from temperate, alpine and seasonal polar climates store water as ice during the colder seasons and release it later in the form of meltwater as warmer summer temperatures cause the glacier to melt, creating a water source that is especially important for plants, animals and human uses when other sources may be scant.

Shashank Shekhar Pathak

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