Myth vs Reality: Glacier Surface Texture

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 This short video addresses the misconception that glaciers are all smooth.

Credits


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

Transcript


(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.