Glaciers and ice sheets hold about 69 percent of the world's freshwater.

 



Glaciers are a big item when we talk about the world's water supply. Almost 10 percent of the world's land mass is currently covered with glaciers, mostly in places like Greenland and Antarctica. You can think of a glacier as a frozen river, and like rivers, they "flow" downhill, erode the landscape, and move water along in the Earth's water cycle.During the maximum point of the last ice age, glaciers covered about 32 percent of the total land area.Starting around the early 14th century, and lasting to the mid-19th century, the world experienced a “Little Ice Age,” when temperatures were consistently cool enough for glaciers to advance in many areas of the world.In the United States, glaciers cover over 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles). Most of those glaciers are located in Alaska, which holds 87,000 square kilometers (34,000 square miles) of glacial ice. If all land ice melted, sea level would rise approximately 70 meters (230 feet) worldwide. Glacier ice crystals can grow to be as large as baseballs.











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