Glaciers,+sea+ice+and+climate+change+2010

Charles Kibira Environmental science Period A Mr. Swanson

= __GLACIERS, SEA ICE AND CLIMATE CHANGE__ =

= WHAT ARE GLACIERS AND SEA ICE? =

Glaciers are accumulations of ice, snow, sediment, rock, and water. Sea ice is frozen ocean water. Which is a form of glacier; growing mainly in the winter and melting during the summer, but in some regions, sea ice remains all year. 15 percent of Earths oceans are covered by sea ice.

The earth is heating up and this is causing a melting of the great glaciers that once stood strong and complete with ice, not they are making new water ways, rivers, streams and the great once huge glaciers are no more. here is a picture of glaciers from the Andes. this is just over the course of 40 years if you look at other pictures from 1900 to 2000 its much more dramatic but still in this, the first on is so much more snow, and then you see later on, there is a lake a new water basin has been made because of global warming, we have heated the planet so that the snow that once on this great site is now turning into water and just bare land. Now as you can see there is much water that is flowing in the newly created pond/lake but now if your glaciers are near an already water source then this can over flood it and off balance what is regularly known to the others around the body of water because of global warming. this can off balance major water ways to all of the sudden to be adding a couple 100 tons of water to something, and from what we learned in ocean oceanography it can also play a role in water temp, and current flow.

Facts
Glaciers and ice sheets play a dramatic role in Earth's climate. Ice and snow receive 60% to 90% of solar radiation

Glaciers occur in rivers, valley, open oceans; all over.

References http://climate-jigsaw.wikispaces.com/Glaciers%2C+sea+ice+and+climate+change http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/fischer/429_info/429trips/NIF/Glaciers.htm http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/25/tech/main4829282.shtml http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/category/climate-changes/glaciers/ http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/forest_facts/resources/geology/icefields.htm

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