Glaciers are essentially giant rivers of ice that are formed over eons as fallen snow is compressed into layers of ice. Glaciers are found on about 10 percent of Earth's land area, with most of them found in the Arctic and Antarctica regions, but some occurring high up on mountains, even in tropical areas. Glacial ice makes up the ice sheets that cover Antarctica and Greenland, with glaciers flowing out to sea, where their ends float on the water as ice shelves. Eventually pieces of the ice shelves break off, or calve, to form icebergs. The movement of glaciers scours the underlying rock, and a glacier's movement can be affected by climate change, with worries that global warming could cause substantial glacial melt and impact global sea levels. For the latest news on glacier research and stunning views of these rivers of ice, see below.
Latest about glaciers
Will we have more earthquakes because of climate change?
Changes in sea level and glacial melt could make earthquakes more likely in the coming years.
How much water is in Earth's crust?
Earth is covered with water, but how much is hiding in our planet's crust?
Greenland is losing so much ice it's getting taller
The bedrock of Greenland is expanding upward as the land mass sheds ice.
Mercury may have a 'potentially habitable' region below its surface, salty glaciers suggest
Salty glaciers discovered in craters near Mercury's north pole may have the right conditions for extreme forms of life, new research suggests.
Lava outburst 3 times the size of Texas may have triggered Snowball Earth 717 million years ago
Massive eruptions 719 million years ago in what is now Canada may have sucked enough CO2 from the atmosphere to freeze Earth over 2 million years later.
25 things found frozen in Europe's mountain ice
Europe's glaciers and ice patches are an enormous deep freezer for artifacts. Here is a countdown of 25 of the most fascinating objects revealed by Europe's melting ice.
Antarctica's sea ice reaches its lowest level since records began, for the 2nd year in a row
Antarctica's sea ice recently shrank to its lowest extent since satellite records began more than 40 years ago.
