glacier

/ˈgleɪʃər/

/ˈgleɪsjə/

Other forms: glaciers

A glacier is a very large ice mass, sometimes miles and miles long. Glaciers might not seem all that exciting at first, but people are paying close attention to them because their melting is an indication of climate change.

Most glaciers on Earth are found around the North and South poles, but every continent except for Australia has glaciers somewhere in its high mountain ranges. People often want to go see glaciers because they're beautiful, and some you can actually hike across. Luckily, if you get thirsty glaciers are the planet’s largest reservoir of freshwater. You’ll just have to find some way of melting them . . .

Definitions of glacier

1. noun

   a slowly moving mass of ice
   types:

   Alpine glacier, Alpine type of glacier

   a glacier that moves down from a high valley

   continental glacier

   a glacier that spreads out from a central mass of ice

   Piedmont glacier, Piedmont type of glacier

   a type of glaciation characteristic of Alaska; large valley glaciers meet to form an almost stagnant sheet of ice

   polar glacier

   a glacier near the Arctic or Antarctic poles

   type of:

   ice mass

   a large mass of ice