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Ice

© Patrice Bentham

Ice. What about it?

Let's go to Secret of the Ice, An Antarctic Expedition and find out about the ice of Antarctica. The ice of the Antarctic is fresh water, the largest body of fresh water in the world. This web site tells you how it was formed (layers of snow compressed together over million of years). There is a section on ice cores and what information is gained from studying them (mainly climatic data whereby natural cycles in global warming and cooling can be identified).

Discovery School has a good section on what an ice age is. An ice age occurs when large portions of the earth are covered with ice. We are in an interglacial period now. The last ice age ended about 11,500 years ago. The site then goes on to define a glacial epoch and discuss the Pleistocene glacial epoch (the most recent glacial epoch). It is estimated that as many as 18 ice ages occurred during this epoch and the site states evidence which scientists have used to come to this conclusion.

Another interesting ice site is The Cryosphere. According to the web site, "the cryosphere includes all forms of frozen water on the Earth's land or sea surfaces, as well as perennially frozen ground (permafrost)". It discusses the different forms of ice and snow (sea ice, fresh water ice, snow, glacier and permafrost, to name a few). There is also a section on the state of the cryosphere as an indicator of climate change.

Take a look at Everything you wanted to know about sea ice and were afraid to ask. This is part of a NASA site about using satellite radar imagery to investigate the polar regions. There are pictures of sea ice (in case you did not know what it looked liked) as well as short discussions about why sea ice floats and why it is not salty.

Where does ice occur on the earth? Good question. Slide over to The Search for Snow and Ice and we will see if we can find out. Here we are to pretend that we are searching for snow and ice needed by communities situated in arid or drought-stricken areas. In order to look for places that might contain snow and ice, the web site provides links to NASA web sites with Earth's images. Good luck with your search.

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