ice capgeology

Main

Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.

Assorted References

  • glaciers ( in glacier: Main types of glaciers )

    ...and are treated here in terms of their sources: ice shelves with ice sheets, piedmont glaciers with mountain glaciers. A complex of mountain glaciers burying much of a mountain range is called an ice field.

  • marine environments ( in marine ecosystem: Geography, oceanography, and topography )

    The shape of the ocean also is altered as sea levels change. During ice ages a higher proportion of the waters of the Earth is bound in the polar ice caps, resulting in a relatively low sea level. When the polar ice caps melt during interglacial periods, the sea level rises. These changes in sea level cause great changes in the distribution of marine environments such as coral reefs. For...

  • Pleistocene Epoch ( in Pleistocene Epoch: Glaciation )

    The growth of large ice sheets, ice caps, and long valley glaciers was among the most significant events of the Pleistocene. During times of extensive glaciation, more than 45 million square kilometres (or about 30 percent) of the Earth’s land area were covered by glaciers, and portions of the northern oceans were either frozen over or had extensive ice shelves. In addition to the Antarctic and...

Citations

MLA Style:

"ice cap." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 09 Jan. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/281080/ice-cap>.

APA Style:

ice cap. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 09, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/281080/ice-cap

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "ice cap" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

A-Z Browse

Image preview