Continental glacier
From GeoClasses
Continental glaciers are typically defined as sheets of glacial ice that cover an area greater than 50,000 km2.
- Modern examples: Greenland (80% covered) and Antarctica (90% covered)
- Antarctica:
- 90% covered by ice.
- ice up to 3 km thick.
- 91% of all glacial ice on the earth is in Antarctica.
- Antarctica:
- Continental glaciers are drained by ice streams that terminate in the oceans and produce ice bergs.
- Ice streams coming off the western edge of the Greenland ice sheet (from Google Maps).
- Antarctic ice sheet fly-over showing ice streams: Antarctic ice sheet flyover
 The Greenland Ice Sheet. Satellite view of Greenland (from Google Maps). |
 Ice Sheets coverage during Pleistocene glacial maxima. |
