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- A glacier can range in length from the equivalent of a football field to more than 100 miles. They are formed by snowflakes over long periods of time. New layers of snow arrive each winter, making the glacier bigger and denser.
- The largest glacier on earth is Antarctica’s Lambert glacier. It is 60 miles wide and about 270 miles long and is named after Bruce P Lambert, former Australian director of national mapping, who helped chart out the area during the 1950s.
- Glaciers contain an estimated 69 per cent of the world’s freshwater supply. In comparison lakes, rivers, swamps, and similar bodies can only claim a combined 0.3 per cent.
- If every glacier and ice sheet on Earth suddenly melted, global sea levels would rise by over 260 feet. Glaciers world over have been melting for at least the last 50 years, and the rate of melting is speeding up. Many glaciers in Alaska and other parts of the US have shrunk dramatically.
- Himalayan glaciers have been retreating rapidly since 2000 due to an average 1 degree Celsius temperature rise in the region.
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