Glaciers
Glaciers are slow rivers of ice.
High mountains get snow instead of rain, and a lot of it.
When snow layer gets too thick, it becomes hard ice due to its enormous weight.
While more snow falls on higher parts of mountain, it pushes the older snow down.
this push of weight keeps glaciers "flowing".
Glaciers move very slowly, just few inches to few feet per day. but they roughly grind the rockey surface beneath them, and this grinding carves the valleys for snow fed rivers.
When glacier moves down a mountain, it gets wider area ahead to occupy, thats why their front end further slows down.
lower end of glacier melts faster, because it is wider, slower and at a warmer place than top of mountain. this gives birth to snow fed rivers.
glacial river network forms in a similar way as rivers in plane. small streams find their way to join together and keep growning and moving towards low lands.
Ultimately every river "wants" to get out of mountains towards the sea.
Glacier fed rivers are more steady and most of them flow around the year, due to few or many glaciers at their back end.
Glacier size grows in winter and shrink in Summer, due to temperature and new snowfall.
When a glacier size shrinks year to year, we can say that area is warming or new snowfall is decreasing. Picture below shows retreat of Muir Glacier in Alaska over 63 years of warming.
Global warming will melt most of glaciers in Pakistan unless nature invents a new way to reset the balance of snaowfall.
When a glacier disappears, the stream or river it feeds, shuts down.
Glaciers are slow rivers of ice.
High mountains get snow instead of rain, and a lot of it.
When snow layer gets too thick, it becomes hard ice due to its enormous weight.
While more snow falls on higher parts of mountain, it pushes the older snow down.
this push of weight keeps glaciers "flowing".
Glaciers move very slowly, just few inches to few feet per day. but they roughly grind the rockey surface beneath them, and this grinding carves the valleys for snow fed rivers.
When glacier moves down a mountain, it gets wider area ahead to occupy, thats why their front end further slows down.
lower end of glacier melts faster, because it is wider, slower and at a warmer place than top of mountain. this gives birth to snow fed rivers.
glacial river network forms in a similar way as rivers in plane. small streams find their way to join together and keep growning and moving towards low lands.
Ultimately every river "wants" to get out of mountains towards the sea.
Glacier fed rivers are more steady and most of them flow around the year, due to few or many glaciers at their back end.
Glacier size grows in winter and shrink in Summer, due to temperature and new snowfall.
When a glacier size shrinks year to year, we can say that area is warming or new snowfall is decreasing. Picture below shows retreat of Muir Glacier in Alaska over 63 years of warming.
Global warming will melt most of glaciers in Pakistan unless nature invents a new way to reset the balance of snaowfall.
When a glacier disappears, the stream or river it feeds, shuts down.
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