ice formationEarth science

any mass of ice that occurs on the Earth’s continents or surface waters. Such masses form wherever substantial amounts of liquid water freeze and remain in the solid state for some period of time. Familiar examples include glaciers, icebergs, sea ice, seasonally frozen ground, and ground ice associated with permafrost—i.e., perennially frozen soil found in frigid regions.

Approximately three-quarters of the Earth’s fresh water is stored in the enormous ice sheets that cover Antarctica and Greenland and in the smaller ice caps, mountain glaciers, and piedmonts scattered throughout the rest of the world. These expanses of perennial ice originate on land by the compaction and recrystallization of snow and other forms of precipitation under the weight of successive layers that have accumulated year after year. They occur in every region, including the Equator at high altitudes.

River and lake ice also occur over a good portion of the world. These sheets of ice remain on their respective surface-water bodies for varying lengths of time. Lakes in Antarctica, for example, are completely covered with ice throughout the entire year, whereas those in the colder areas of the continental United States experience freezing surface-water temperatures for only about 100 days in an average year.

In the oceanic waters of the polar regions, ice occurs in the form of sea ice and icebergs. Sea ice consists of frozen saltwater that has been broken up and jammed together by wind. In most cases, it is only one to two years old, and it expands during winter to cover large areas of the oceans. During spring and summer, warmer temperatures cause the ice to melt, resulting in a retreat of its borders. The same warmer weather conditions promote the calving (breaking off) of icebergs at the seaward edges of glaciers and ice shelves. These large chunks of ice (some extend several kilometres in length) then drift with the current toward temperate latitudes.

Permafrost usually consists of rocks and soil particles consolidated by ice. Such frozen ground occurs in regions where temperatures below 0° C (32° F) persist for two years or more (e.g., the Arctic and sub-Arctic). It is estimated that permafrost underlies nearly 25 percent of the terrestrial land surface. Various forms of ground ice are found in permafrost. The most conspicuous of these is foliated ice, which frequently develops in thermal contraction cracks in permafrost as wedge-shaped, vertical, or inclined sheets 2.5 cm to 3 m (about 1 inch to 10 feet) wide and 0.3 to 9 m (1 to 30 feet) deep. Another prominent form is pingo ice, which occurs horizontally or in lens-shaped masses.