Glaciers, Glaciation, Ocean Levels and Climate Change

Glaciers are huge masses of ice that moves across land or down a valley, they are created over long periods of time, from snow that is slowly accumulated where the snowfall is greater than the amount that melts. The word glacier derives from the Latin word glacies which means ice, glacier ice is a biggest body of fresh water on earth, glaciers take up a vast area of the polar regions as well as mountain ranges where the temperatures are low enough for ice to occur.

Where it is hotter it areas like the tropics, the glaciers are located only in the highest mountain ranges where the temperatures are much lower, glaciers are crucial in monitoring both climate change and sea level. Glacier growth and development id called glaciation.

Since the 1850s glaciers has decreased both in number and size due to the effects of global warming. This affects the amount of fresh water for irrigation and general usage. Many animals and plants also rely heavily on the water provided for by glaciers so their decline may have some catastrophic knock on effects and in the long term can seriously affect ocean levels.

Global warming caused by human activity is causing glacier retreat globally and from such areas as the Himalayas, Alps, Rocky Mountains, Cascade Range, and the southern Andes, and even isolated tropical areas like Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, are also showing some of the biggest glacial retreat. Glaciologists have studied the correlation between increased greenhouses gasses emissions and glacial retreat and sae level rise.

In the last 30 or so years glacial retreat has increased substantially due to human caused global warming, there are even some glaciers that have totally gone, many hundreds more are also in danger of disappearing, such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia, the loss of glaciers in these areas will have a devastating impact on water supplies in those areas.

As well as in western North America, Asia, the Alps, Indonesia and Africa, and tropical and subtropical areas of South America glacial retreat from these mountain ranges has also been substantial in recent times. Many studies and reports have been produced using these areas as evidence of global warming’s effect on glacial retreat. As these glaciers retreat sea levels will rise and have dramatic effects on numerous coastal areas globally.