Did You Know: Snow and Ice
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Approximately 10% of Earth's land area is currently covered with snow and ice.
Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory (https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/).
- Image of Eastern Greenland: NASA Gulfstream-III
- Image of Confluence of the Baldwin and Fraser Glaciers, Alaska: National Park Service, Jacob W. Frank
- Image of Steenstrup Glacier, Greenland: Operation IceBridge
- Written by Margaret Carruthers
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Text, Did You Know? Snow and Ice.
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Approximately 10 percent of Earth's land area is currently covered with snow and ice. Photo of snow-covered Eastern Greeland, by NASA Gulfstream 3.
Text, Almost all of the ice on Earth is found in the ice sheets that cover Greenland and the continent of Antarctica.
Most of the rest is in alpine glaciers, rivers of ice that flow down mountain valleys at high latitudes or high elevations. Photo showing road-like glacier paths, Confluence of the Baldwin and Fraser Glaciers, Alaska, by National Park Service, Jacob W. Frank.
Text, Altogether, glaciers and ice sheets contain nearly 70 percent of Earth's total supply of fresh water. Photo of the Steenstrup Glacier and its path to the sea, Greenland, by Operation Ice Bridge.