Myth vs Reality: Glacier Surface Texture

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory.

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA except:

 

except:

·       Photo of Tasman Lake in New Zealand courtesy of Wikimedia user Avenue

·       Sea creature illustration copyright The National Library of Israel, Shapell Family Digitization Project _and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Geography – Historic Cities Research Project

·       Athabasca Glacier photo courtesy of Lucy Albert

·       Snowflake photos by Wilson A. Bentley

·       Electron-microscope image of a snowflake from the Electron Microscopy Unit, _Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture

·       Photo of snow-covered field courtesy of Emmanuel Boutet

·       Photo of melt pools from the collection of Dr. Pablo Clemente-Colon, Chief Scientist, National Ice Center

·       Photo of snow crystals courtesy of Alex Bakharev

·       Photo of ice crystals courtesy of Petr Dlouhý

·       Photo of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s southern ice field courtesy of Wikimedia user Chris 73 / Wikipedia Commons

·       Larsen B Ice Shelf images courtesy of Ted Scambos, National Snow and Ice Data Center, _University of Colorado, Boulder, based on data from MODIS

·       Statue of Liberty illustration courtesy of ClipArts101.com

·       Photo of boat in front of Eqip Sermia Glacier courtesy of Michele Koppes, University of British Columbia

·       Bear Glacier IKONOS image courtesy of DigitalGlobe

 

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

Written by Andrea Gianopoulos

Designed by Marc Lussier

(SPEECH)

[JAZZY MUSIC]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, Myth vs. Reality

 

Myth. The surfaces of glaciers are smooth.

 

Reality. Although the area where snow accumulates on a glacier can be fairly smooth, the rest of the glacier is a jagged and jumbled array of melting ice pinnacles, rocks, and deep crevasses.