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The Virtual
Briefing Room
What are Glaciers?
This image was taken by Matthew Durant
at Exit Glacier (Kenai Fjords National Park)
Home
What is a Glacier?
How do Glaciers Form?
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How do Glaciers Shape the Land?
Questions
What is a Glacier?
Text
Message
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---Classified---
Text Message #2:
Tasks
From: Crystal
Subject: Your
Tasks
Our emergency meeting of
scientists will begin in 24 hours. It is crucial that you
catch the next plane up here to Alaska. We'll be meeting
in our virtual briefing room at the Alyeska
Resort, in Girdwood, Alaska. Our mission
will be to find out more about glaciers so that we can begin to locate
the lost "top secret" package. I hope you dress
warmly. Although it's only September, the weather reporters are
already forecasting snow. Out here in the heart of glacier
country, we'll surely get it. Hurry, you're expected to
be at the virtual briefing room for this important
meeting.
We will:
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Attend our summit
at the virtual briefing room.
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Use the Online resources
to learn more about glaciers.
Good Luck!!!
Crystal
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I want to embark to the Virtual Briefing Room 
Virtual
Exploration
Virtual
Briefing Room
What are Glaciers?
Good afternoon! I would like to
welcome my esteemed colleagues, our nation's best national security agents,
the world's top geologists, and our elite team of student scientists. You
are here on the most important mission that our country has ever
faced. If successful,
the results of your work will remain unpublished and most Americans
will be unaware of your contributions to their security. Rest
assured, you are already making a difference to the future of our
country. Now, the first step in finding the "top secret"
package is to learn more about what glaciers are.
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Glacier
gla·cier/ glā·shәr
1. A large, perennial accumulation of ice, snow,
rock, sediment, and liquid water originating on land and moving
down-slope under the influence of its own weight and gravity.
2. A dynamic river of ice.
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Alaska is covered with glaciers. Our satellite
imaging system has found that there are over 100,000 glaciers in
Alaska. By sorting through these images, we found that over 5% of
Alaska is covered with glaciers. All of these glaciers hold massive
amounts of water, in the form of glacier ice, trapped inside. That's
a lot of glaciers.
While we are out on our virtual explorations we will
see three main types of glaciers: hanging, tidewater, and piedmont.
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Hanging Glacier
In here, near the Northwestern Glacier, there
are glaciers all over the place. Take that one hanging
from the top of that cliff. People call those hanging
glaciers. The name makes sense because they end abruptly at the
edge of a cliff and hang over before bits of it break off and
crash down to the ground below.
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Tidewater Glacier
Glaciers that end in the water are called
tidewater glaciers. This glacier is the Northwestern
Glacier. It is awesome! The boat we are on, has taken us
close to the terminus of the glacier. Listen to that!!! You
can hear cracking, a sound like a gunshot, and then splash, a chunk
of ice the size of a house falls into the ocean,
SPLASH! Because the water is warmer than the glacier ice, it
melts the glacier ice pretty fast.
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Piedmont Glacier
Most of the glaciers that we have seen so far
are hemmed in on the sides by steep valley walls. When
glaciers flow out onto an open plain, they spread out. These
piedmont glaciers never reach the ocean. Check
out that one over there to the left. See what I mean?
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Online
Resources
Further
Reading
Alaska's Glaciers. Alaska Geographic
volume 9, number 1, 1982.
An observer's guide to the glaciers of Prince William Sound,
Alaska. Valdez, AK: Prince William Sound Books,
1987.
Glacier. R. H. Bailey and the Editors of
Time-Life Books Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1982.
Glaciers John Gordon. Stillwater, MN
Voyageur Press, 2001.
Glaciers, Natures Frozen Rivers. H. H. Nixon and
J. L. Nixon. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1980.
Glaciers of North America: A Field Guide. S. A.
Ferguson. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Press, 1992.
Blue Ice in Motion: The Story of
Alaska's Glaciers S. Wiley. Alaska Natural History Assn. 1995.
Assessment
Guide
Click here to see a rubric to
help you assess and revise your own work.
Revisit
the Question
What is a Glacier?
Home
What is a Glacier?
How do Glaciers Form?
How do Glaciers Move?
How do Glaciers Shape the Land?
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