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122-618: South Cascade Glacier is a large alpine glacier in the North Cascades of Washington , USA . It is bordered on the east by 8,261-foot (2,518 m) Sentinel Peak , and is about 17 mi (27 km) north of Glacier Peak in the Glacier Peak Wilderness . Meltwater from the glacier flows directly into South Cascade Lake , which feeds the South Fork Cascade River , which is a tributary of

244-424: A cirque landform (alternatively known as a corrie or as a cwm ) – a typically armchair-shaped geological feature (such as a depression between mountains enclosed by arêtes ) – which collects and compresses through gravity the snow that falls into it. This snow accumulates and the weight of the snow falling above compacts it, forming névé (granular snow). Further crushing of the individual snowflakes and squeezing

366-430: A body in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium is always positive relative to absolute zero. Besides the internationally agreed Kelvin scale, there is also a thermodynamic temperature scale , invented by Lord Kelvin , also with its numerical zero at the absolute zero of temperature, but directly relating to purely macroscopic thermodynamic concepts, including the macroscopic entropy , though microscopically referable to

488-410: A cycle of states of its working body. The engine takes in a quantity of heat Q 1 from a hot reservoir and passes out a lesser quantity of waste heat Q 2 < 0 to a cold reservoir. The net heat energy absorbed by the working body is passed, as thermodynamic work, to a work reservoir, and is considered to be the output of the engine. The cycle is imagined to run so slowly that at each point of

610-402: A fixed volume and mass of an ideal gas is directly proportional to its temperature. Some natural gases show so nearly ideal properties over suitable temperature range that they can be used for thermometry; this was important during the development of thermodynamics and is still of practical importance today. The ideal gas thermometer is, however, not theoretically perfect for thermodynamics. This

732-488: A gas can be calculated theoretically from the gas's molecular character, temperature, pressure, and the Boltzmann constant. For a gas of known molecular character and pressure, this provides a relation between temperature and the Boltzmann constant. Those quantities can be known or measured more precisely than can the thermodynamic variables that define the state of a sample of water at its triple point. Consequently, taking

854-522: A glacier is usually assessed by determining the glacier mass balance or observing terminus behavior. Healthy glaciers have large accumulation zones, more than 60% of their area is snow-covered at the end of the melt season, and they have a terminus with a vigorous flow. Following the Little Ice Age 's end around 1850, glaciers around the Earth have retreated substantially . A slight cooling led to

976-601: A glacier may flow into a body of water, it forms only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water. On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets (also known as "continental glaciers") in the polar regions , but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent other than the Australian mainland, including Oceania's high-latitude oceanic island countries such as New Zealand . Between latitudes 35°N and 35°S, glaciers occur only in

1098-411: A glacier via moulins . Streams within or beneath a glacier flow in englacial or sub-glacial tunnels. These tunnels sometimes reemerge at the glacier's surface. Most of the important processes controlling glacial motion occur in the ice-bed contact—even though it is only a few meters thick. The bed's temperature, roughness and softness define basal shear stress, which in turn defines whether movement of

1220-408: A kilometer per year. Eventually, the ice will be surging fast enough that it begins to thin, as accumulation cannot keep up with the transport. This thinning will increase the conductive heat loss, slowing the glacier and causing freezing. This freezing will slow the glacier further, often until it is stationary, whence the cycle can begin again. The flow of water under the glacial surface can have

1342-404: A large effect on the motion of the glacier itself. Subglacial lakes contain significant amounts of water, which can move fast: cubic kilometers can be transported between lakes over the course of a couple of years. This motion is thought to occur in two main modes: pipe flow involves liquid water moving through pipe-like conduits, like a sub-glacial river; sheet flow involves motion of water in

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1464-406: A linear relation between their numerical scale readings, but it does require that the relation between their numerical readings shall be strictly monotonic . A definite sense of greater hotness can be had, independently of calorimetry , of thermodynamics, and of properties of particular materials, from Wien's displacement law of thermal radiation : the temperature of a bath of thermal radiation

1586-415: A loss of heat from a closed system, without phase change, without change of volume, and without a change in external force fields acting on it, decreases its temperature. While for bodies in their own thermodynamic equilibrium states, the notion of temperature requires that all empirical thermometers must agree as to which of two bodies is the hotter or that they are at the same temperature, this requirement

1708-460: A lower heat conductance, meaning that the basal temperature is also likely to be higher. Bed temperature tends to vary in a cyclic fashion. A cool bed has a high strength, reducing the speed of the glacier. This increases the rate of accumulation, since newly fallen snow is not transported away. Consequently, the glacier thickens, with three consequences: firstly, the bed is better insulated, allowing greater retention of geothermal heat. Secondly,

1830-462: A spatially varying local property in that body, and this is because the temperature is an intensive variable. Temperature is a measure of a quality of a state of a material. The quality may be regarded as a more abstract entity than any particular temperature scale that measures it, and is called hotness by some writers. The quality of hotness refers to the state of material only in a particular locality, and in general, apart from bodies held in

1952-551: A species being all alike. It explains macroscopic phenomena through the classical mechanics of the microscopic particles. The equipartition theorem of kinetic theory asserts that each classical degree of freedom of a freely moving particle has an average kinetic energy of k B T /2 where k B denotes the Boltzmann constant . The translational motion of the particle has three degrees of freedom, so that, except at very low temperatures where quantum effects predominate,

2074-415: A specific intensive variable. An example is a diathermic wall that is permeable only to heat; the intensive variable for this case is temperature. When the two bodies have been connected through the specifically permeable wall for a very long time, and have settled to a permanent steady state, the relevant intensive variables are equal in the two bodies; for a diathermal wall, this statement is sometimes called

2196-400: A steady state of thermodynamic equilibrium, hotness varies from place to place. It is not necessarily the case that a material in a particular place is in a state that is steady and nearly homogeneous enough to allow it to have a well-defined hotness or temperature. Hotness may be represented abstractly as a one-dimensional manifold . Every valid temperature scale has its own one-to-one map into

2318-435: A system undergoing a first-order phase change such as the melting of ice, as a closed system receives heat, without a change in its volume and without a change in external force fields acting on it, its temperature rises. For a system undergoing such a phase change so slowly that departure from thermodynamic equilibrium can be neglected, its temperature remains constant as the system is supplied with latent heat . Conversely,

2440-488: A thin layer. A switch between the two flow conditions may be associated with surging behavior. Indeed, the loss of sub-glacial water supply has been linked with the shut-down of ice movement in the Kamb ice stream. The subglacial motion of water is expressed in the surface topography of ice sheets, which slump down into vacated subglacial lakes. The speed of glacial displacement is partly determined by friction . Friction makes

2562-410: A tremendous impact as the iceberg strikes the water. Tidewater glaciers undergo centuries-long cycles of advance and retreat that are much less affected by climate change than other glaciers. Thermally, a temperate glacier is at a melting point throughout the year, from its surface to its base. The ice of a polar glacier is always below the freezing threshold from the surface to its base, although

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2684-511: Is proportional , by a universal constant, to the frequency of the maximum of its frequency spectrum ; this frequency is always positive, but can have values that tend to zero . Thermal radiation is initially defined for a cavity in thermodynamic equilibrium. These physical facts justify a mathematical statement that hotness exists on an ordered one-dimensional manifold . This is a fundamental character of temperature and thermometers for bodies in their own thermodynamic equilibrium. Except for

2806-468: Is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries . It acquires distinguishing features, such as crevasses and seracs , as it slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by its weight. As it moves, it abrades rock and debris from its substrate to create landforms such as cirques , moraines , or fjords . Although

2928-456: Is above or at freezing at the interface and is able to slide at this contact. This contrast is thought to a large extent to govern the ability of a glacier to effectively erode its bed , as sliding ice promotes plucking at rock from the surface below. Glaciers which are partly cold-based and partly warm-based are known as polythermal . Glaciers form where the accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation . A glacier usually originates from

3050-407: Is affected by factors such as slope, ice thickness, snowfall, longitudinal confinement, basal temperature, meltwater production, and bed hardness. A few glaciers have periods of very rapid advancement called surges . These glaciers exhibit normal movement until suddenly they accelerate, then return to their previous movement state. These surges may be caused by the failure of the underlying bedrock,

3172-409: Is an intensive variable because it is equal to a differential coefficient of one extensive variable with respect to another, for a given body. It thus has the dimensions of a ratio of two extensive variables. In thermodynamics, two bodies are often considered as connected by contact with a common wall, which has some specific permeability properties. Such specific permeability can be referred to

3294-518: Is arbitrary, and an alternate, less widely used absolute temperature scale exists called the Rankine scale , made to be aligned with the Fahrenheit scale as Kelvin is with Celsius. The thermodynamic definition of temperature is due to Kelvin. It is framed in terms of an idealized device called a Carnot engine , imagined to run in a fictive continuous cycle of successive processes that traverse

3416-454: Is because the entropy of an ideal gas at its absolute zero of temperature is not a positive semi-definite quantity, which puts the gas in violation of the third law of thermodynamics. In contrast to real materials, the ideal gas does not liquefy or solidify, no matter how cold it is. Alternatively thinking, the ideal gas law, refers to the limit of infinitely high temperature and zero pressure; these conditions guarantee non-interactive motions of

3538-411: Is because these peaks are located near or in the hyperarid Atacama Desert . Glaciers erode terrain through two principal processes: plucking and abrasion . As glaciers flow over bedrock, they soften and lift blocks of rock into the ice. This process, called plucking, is caused by subglacial water that penetrates fractures in the bedrock and subsequently freezes and expands. This expansion causes

3660-406: Is by basal sliding, where meltwater forms between the ice and the bed itself. Whether a bed is hard or soft depends on the porosity and pore pressure; higher porosity decreases the sediment strength (thus increases the shear stress τ B ). Porosity may vary through a range of methods. Bed softness may vary in space or time, and changes dramatically from glacier to glacier. An important factor

3782-434: Is called glaciology . Glaciers are important components of the global cryosphere . Glaciers are categorized by their morphology, thermal characteristics, and behavior. Alpine glaciers form on the crests and slopes of mountains. A glacier that fills a valley is called a valley glacier , or alternatively, an alpine glacier or mountain glacier . A large body of glacial ice astride a mountain, mountain range, or volcano

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3904-416: Is called rock flour and is made up of rock grains between 0.002 and 0.00625 mm in size. Abrasion leads to steeper valley walls and mountain slopes in alpine settings, which can cause avalanches and rock slides, which add even more material to the glacier. Glacial abrasion is commonly characterized by glacial striations . Glaciers produce these when they contain large boulders that carve long scratches in

4026-547: Is directly proportional to the temperature of the black body; this is known as Wien's displacement law and has a theoretical explanation in Planck's law and the Bose–Einstein law . Measurement of the spectrum of noise-power produced by an electrical resistor can also provide accurate temperature measurement. The resistor has two terminals and is in effect a one-dimensional body. The Bose-Einstein law for this case indicates that

4148-489: Is disregarded. In an ideal gas , and in other theoretically understood bodies, the Kelvin temperature is defined to be proportional to the average kinetic energy of non-interactively moving microscopic particles, which can be measured by suitable techniques. The proportionality constant is a simple multiple of the Boltzmann constant. If molecules, atoms, or electrons are emitted from material and their velocities are measured,

4270-551: Is exactly equal to −273.15 °C , or −459.67 °F . Referring to the Boltzmann constant , to the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution , and to the Boltzmann statistical mechanical definition of entropy , as distinct from the Gibbs definition, for independently moving microscopic particles, disregarding interparticle potential energy, by international agreement, a temperature scale is defined and said to be absolute because it

4392-647: Is higher, and the mountains above 5,000 m (16,400 ft) usually have permanent snow. Even at high latitudes, glacier formation is not inevitable. Areas of the Arctic , such as Banks Island , and the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica are considered polar deserts where glaciers cannot form because they receive little snowfall despite the bitter cold. Cold air, unlike warm air, is unable to transport much water vapor. Even during glacial periods of

4514-472: Is in common use in the United States. Water freezes at 32 °F and boils at 212 °F at sea-level atmospheric pressure. At the absolute zero of temperature, no energy can be removed from matter as heat, a fact expressed in the third law of thermodynamics . At this temperature, matter contains no macroscopic thermal energy, but still has quantum-mechanical zero-point energy as predicted by

4636-523: Is independent of the characteristics of particular thermometric substances and thermometer mechanisms. Apart from absolute zero, it does not have a reference temperature. It is known as the Kelvin scale , widely used in science and technology. The kelvin (the unit name is spelled with a lower-case 'k') is the unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI). The temperature of

4758-455: Is not safe for bodies that are in steady states though not in thermodynamic equilibrium. It can then well be that different empirical thermometers disagree about which is hotter, and if this is so, then at least one of the bodies does not have a well-defined absolute thermodynamic temperature. Nevertheless, any one given body and any one suitable empirical thermometer can still support notions of empirical, non-absolute, hotness, and temperature, for

4880-551: Is only one degree of freedom left to arbitrary choice, rather than two as in relative scales. For the Kelvin scale since May 2019, by international convention, the choice has been made to use knowledge of modes of operation of various thermometric devices, relying on microscopic kinetic theories about molecular motion. The numerical scale is settled by a conventional definition of the value of the Boltzmann constant , which relates macroscopic temperature to average microscopic kinetic energy of particles such as molecules. Its numerical value

5002-419: Is said to prevail throughout the body. It makes good sense, for example, to say of the extensive variable U , or of the extensive variable S , that it has a density per unit volume or a quantity per unit mass of the system, but it makes no sense to speak of the density of temperature per unit volume or quantity of temperature per unit mass of the system. On the other hand, it makes no sense to speak of

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5124-897: Is termed an ice cap or ice field . Ice caps have an area less than 50,000 km (19,000 sq mi) by definition. Glacial bodies larger than 50,000 km (19,000 sq mi) are called ice sheets or continental glaciers . Several kilometers deep, they obscure the underlying topography. Only nunataks protrude from their surfaces. The only extant ice sheets are the two that cover most of Antarctica and Greenland. They contain vast quantities of freshwater, enough that if both melted, global sea levels would rise by over 70 m (230 ft). Portions of an ice sheet or cap that extend into water are called ice shelves ; they tend to be thin with limited slopes and reduced velocities. Narrow, fast-moving sections of an ice sheet are called ice streams . In Antarctica, many ice streams drain into large ice shelves . Some drain directly into

5246-413: Is the region where there is a net loss in glacier mass. The upper part of a glacier, where accumulation exceeds ablation, is called the accumulation zone . The equilibrium line separates the ablation zone and the accumulation zone; it is the contour where the amount of new snow gained by accumulation is equal to the amount of ice lost through ablation. In general, the accumulation zone accounts for 60–70% of

5368-402: Is the underlying geology; glacial speeds tend to differ more when they change bedrock than when the gradient changes. Further, bed roughness can also act to slow glacial motion. The roughness of the bed is a measure of how many boulders and obstacles protrude into the overlying ice. Ice flows around these obstacles by melting under the high pressure on their stoss side ; the resultant meltwater

5490-552: Is then forced into the cavity arising in their lee side , where it re-freezes. As well as affecting the sediment stress, fluid pressure (p w ) can affect the friction between the glacier and the bed. High fluid pressure provides a buoyancy force upwards on the glacier, reducing the friction at its base. The fluid pressure is compared to the ice overburden pressure, p i , given by ρgh. Under fast-flowing ice streams, these two pressures will be approximately equal, with an effective pressure (p i – p w ) of 30 kPa; i.e. all of

5612-993: The Andes , the Himalayas , the Rocky Mountains , the Caucasus , Scandinavian Mountains , and the Alps . Snezhnika glacier in Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria with a latitude of 41°46′09″ N is the southernmost glacial mass in Europe. Mainland Australia currently contains no glaciers, although a small glacier on Mount Kosciuszko was present in the last glacial period . In New Guinea, small, rapidly diminishing, glaciers are located on Puncak Jaya . Africa has glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on Mount Kenya , and in

5734-497: The Boltzmann constant , the value of which is defined as fixed by international convention. Since May 2019, the magnitude of the kelvin is defined in relation to microscopic phenomena, characterized in terms of statistical mechanics. Previously, but since 1954, the International System of Units defined a scale and unit for the kelvin as a thermodynamic temperature , by using the reliably reproducible temperature of

5856-525: The Boltzmann constant . That constant refers to chosen kinds of motion of microscopic particles in the constitution of the body. In those kinds of motion, the particles move individually, without mutual interaction. Such motions are typically interrupted by inter-particle collisions, but for temperature measurement, the motions are chosen so that, between collisions, the non-interactive segments of their trajectories are known to be accessible to accurate measurement. For this purpose, interparticle potential energy

5978-608: The Celsius scale with the unit symbol °C (formerly called centigrade ), the Fahrenheit scale (°F), and the Kelvin scale (K), with the third being used predominantly for scientific purposes. The kelvin is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units (SI). Absolute zero , i.e., zero kelvin or −273.15 °C, is the lowest point in the thermodynamic temperature scale. Experimentally, it can be approached very closely but not actually reached, as recognized in

6100-644: The Faroe and Crozet Islands were completely glaciated. The permanent snow cover necessary for glacier formation is affected by factors such as the degree of slope on the land, amount of snowfall and the winds. Glaciers can be found in all latitudes except from 20° to 27° north and south of the equator where the presence of the descending limb of the Hadley circulation lowers precipitation so much that with high insolation snow lines reach above 6,500 m (21,330 ft). Between 19˚N and 19˚S, however, precipitation

6222-760: The Himalayas , Andes , and a few high mountains in East Africa, Mexico, New Guinea and on Zard-Kuh in Iran. With more than 7,000 known glaciers, Pakistan has more glacial ice than any other country outside the polar regions. Glaciers cover about 10% of Earth's land surface. Continental glaciers cover nearly 13 million km (5 million sq mi) or about 98% of Antarctica 's 13.2 million km (5.1 million sq mi), with an average thickness of ice 2,100 m (7,000 ft). Greenland and Patagonia also have huge expanses of continental glaciers. The volume of glaciers, not including

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6344-562: The Quaternary , Manchuria , lowland Siberia , and central and northern Alaska , though extraordinarily cold, had such light snowfall that glaciers could not form. In addition to the dry, unglaciated polar regions, some mountains and volcanoes in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina are high (4,500 to 6,900 m or 14,800 to 22,600 ft) and cold, but the relative lack of precipitation prevents snow from accumulating into glaciers. This

6466-535: The Rwenzori Mountains . Oceanic islands with glaciers include Iceland, several of the islands off the coast of Norway including Svalbard and Jan Mayen to the far north, New Zealand and the subantarctic islands of Marion , Heard , Grande Terre (Kerguelen) and Bouvet . During glacial periods of the Quaternary, Taiwan , Hawaii on Mauna Kea and Tenerife also had large alpine glaciers, while

6588-598: The Skagit River . South Cascade Glacier is one of the four "benchmark glaciers" that is monitored by the USGS and its mass balance has been monitored since 1959. Its area has declined from 2.71 km in 1958 to 1.8 km in 2015 representing an area loss of 34%. Between 1958 and 2009 South Cascade Glacier lost nearly a half of its volume. Alpine glacier A glacier ( US : / ˈ ɡ l eɪ ʃ ər / ; UK : / ˈ ɡ l æ s i ər , ˈ ɡ l eɪ s i ər / )

6710-528: The third law of thermodynamics . It would be impossible to extract energy as heat from a body at that temperature. Temperature is important in all fields of natural science , including physics , chemistry , Earth science , astronomy , medicine , biology , ecology , material science , metallurgy , mechanical engineering and geography as well as most aspects of daily life. Many physical processes are related to temperature; some of them are given below: Temperature scales need two values for definition:

6832-602: The triple point of water as a second reference point, the first reference point being 0 K at absolute zero. Historically, the temperature of the triple point of water was defined as exactly 273.16 K. Today it is an empirically measured quantity. The freezing point of water at sea-level atmospheric pressure occurs at very close to 273.15 K ( 0 °C ). There are various kinds of temperature scale. It may be convenient to classify them as empirically and theoretically based. Empirical temperature scales are historically older, while theoretically based scales arose in

6954-459: The uncertainty principle , although this does not enter into the definition of absolute temperature. Experimentally, absolute zero can be approached only very closely; it can never be reached (the lowest temperature attained by experiment is 38 pK). Theoretically, in a body at a temperature of absolute zero, all classical motion of its particles has ceased and they are at complete rest in this classical sense. Absolute zero, defined as 0 K ,

7076-464: The zeroth law of thermodynamics says that they all measure the same quality. This means that for a body in its own state of internal thermodynamic equilibrium, every correctly calibrated thermometer, of whatever kind, that measures the temperature of the body, records one and the same temperature. For a body that is not in its own state of internal thermodynamic equilibrium, different thermometers can record different temperatures, depending respectively on

7198-448: The 1990s and 2000s. In a study using data from January 1993 through October 2005, more events were detected every year since 2002, and twice as many events were recorded in 2005 as there were in any other year. Ogives or Forbes bands are alternating wave crests and valleys that appear as dark and light bands of ice on glacier surfaces. They are linked to seasonal motion of glaciers; the width of one dark and one light band generally equals

7320-409: The Boltzmann constant. Taking the value of the Boltzmann constant as a primarily defined reference of exactly defined value, a measurement of the speed of sound can provide a more precise measurement of the temperature of the gas. It is possible to measure the average kinetic energy of constituent microscopic particles if they are allowed to escape from the bulk of the system, through a small hole in

7442-480: The Gibbs statistical mechanical definition of entropy for the canonical ensemble , that takes interparticle potential energy into account, as well as independent particle motion so that it can account for measurements of temperatures near absolute zero. This scale has a reference temperature at the triple point of water, the numerical value of which is defined by measurements using the aforementioned internationally agreed Kelvin scale. Many scientific measurements use

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7564-409: The Kelvin temperature scale (unit symbol: K), named in honor of the physicist who first defined it . It is an absolute scale. Its numerical zero point, 0 K , is at the absolute zero of temperature. Since May 2019, the kelvin has been defined through particle kinetic theory , and statistical mechanics. In the International System of Units (SI), the magnitude of the kelvin is defined in terms of

7686-412: The advance of many alpine glaciers between 1950 and 1985, but since 1985 glacier retreat and mass loss has become larger and increasingly ubiquitous. Glaciers move downhill by the force of gravity and the internal deformation of ice. At the molecular level, ice consists of stacked layers of molecules with relatively weak bonds between layers. When the amount of strain (deformation) is proportional to

7808-520: The air from the snow turns it into "glacial ice". This glacial ice will fill the cirque until it "overflows" through a geological weakness or vacancy, such as a gap between two mountains. When the mass of snow and ice reaches sufficient thickness, it begins to move by a combination of surface slope, gravity, and pressure. On steeper slopes, this can occur with as little as 15 m (49 ft) of snow-ice. In temperate glaciers, snow repeatedly freezes and thaws, changing into granular ice called firn . Under

7930-430: The amount of melting at surface of the glacier, the faster the ice will flow. Basal sliding is dominant in temperate or warm-based glaciers. The presence of basal meltwater depends on both bed temperature and other factors. For instance, the melting point of water decreases under pressure, meaning that water melts at a lower temperature under thicker glaciers. This acts as a "double whammy", because thicker glaciers have

8052-713: The annual movement of the glacier. Ogives are formed when ice from an icefall is severely broken up, increasing ablation surface area during summer. This creates a swale and space for snow accumulation in the winter, which in turn creates a ridge. Sometimes ogives consist only of undulations or color bands and are described as wave ogives or band ogives. Glaciers are present on every continent and in approximately fifty countries, excluding those (Australia, South Africa) that have glaciers only on distant subantarctic island territories. Extensive glaciers are found in Antarctica, Argentina, Chile, Canada, Pakistan, Alaska, Greenland and Iceland. Mountain glaciers are widespread, especially in

8174-412: The average translational kinetic energy of a freely moving particle in a system with temperature T will be 3 k B T /2 . Molecules, such as oxygen (O 2 ), have more degrees of freedom than single spherical atoms: they undergo rotational and vibrational motions as well as translations. Heating results in an increase of temperature due to an increase in the average translational kinetic energy of

8296-432: The bedrock has frequent fractures on the surface, glacial erosion rates tend to increase as plucking is the main erosive force on the surface; when the bedrock has wide gaps between sporadic fractures, however, abrasion tends to be the dominant erosive form and glacial erosion rates become slow. Glaciers in lower latitudes tend to be much more erosive than glaciers in higher latitudes, because they have more meltwater reaching

8418-445: The bedrock. By mapping the direction of the striations, researchers can determine the direction of the glacier's movement. Similar to striations are chatter marks , lines of crescent-shape depressions in the rock underlying a glacier. They are formed by abrasion when boulders in the glacier are repeatedly caught and released as they are dragged along the bedrock. The rate of glacier erosion varies. Six factors control erosion rate: When

8540-411: The body is described by stating its entropy S as a function of its internal energy U , and other state variables V , N , with S = S ( U , V , N ) , then the reciprocal of the temperature is equal to the partial derivative of the entropy with respect to the internal energy: The above definition, equation (1), of the absolute temperature, is due to Kelvin. It refers to systems closed to

8662-483: The boiling point of mercury , a mercury-in-glass thermometer is impracticable. Most materials expand with temperature increase, but some materials, such as water, contract with temperature increase over some specific range, and then they are hardly useful as thermometric materials. A material is of no use as a thermometer near one of its phase-change temperatures, for example, its boiling-point. In spite of these limitations, most generally used practical thermometers are of

8784-408: The constituent molecules. The magnitude of the kelvin is now defined in terms of kinetic theory, derived from the value of the Boltzmann constant . Kinetic theory provides a microscopic account of temperature for some bodies of material, especially gases, based on macroscopic systems' being composed of many microscopic particles, such as molecules and ions of various species, the particles of

8906-501: The constituent particles of matter, so that they have a limiting specific heat of zero for zero temperature, according to the third law of thermodynamics. Nevertheless, a thermodynamic temperature does in fact have a definite numerical value that has been arbitrarily chosen by tradition and is dependent on the property of particular materials; it is simply less arbitrary than relative "degrees" scales such as Celsius and Fahrenheit . Being an absolute scale with one fixed point (zero), there

9028-410: The containing wall. The spectrum of velocities has to be measured, and the average calculated from that. It is not necessarily the case that the particles that escape and are measured have the same velocity distribution as the particles that remain in the bulk of the system, but sometimes a good sample is possible. Temperature is one of the principal quantities in the study of thermodynamics . Formerly,

9150-571: The created ice's density. The word glacier is a loanword from French and goes back, via Franco-Provençal , to the Vulgar Latin glaciārium , derived from the Late Latin glacia , and ultimately Latin glaciēs , meaning "ice". The processes and features caused by or related to glaciers are referred to as glacial. The process of glacier establishment, growth and flow is called glaciation . The corresponding area of study

9272-426: The cycle the working body is in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. The successive processes of the cycle are thus imagined to run reversibly with no entropy production . Then the quantity of entropy taken in from the hot reservoir when the working body is heated is equal to that passed to the cold reservoir when the working body is cooled. Then the absolute or thermodynamic temperatures, T 1 and T 2 , of

9394-467: The deep profile of fjords , which can reach a kilometer in depth as ice is topographically steered into them. The extension of fjords inland increases the rate of ice sheet thinning since they are the principal conduits for draining ice sheets. It also makes the ice sheets more sensitive to changes in climate and the ocean. Although evidence in favor of glacial flow was known by the early 19th century, other theories of glacial motion were advanced, such as

9516-442: The definition just stated, was printed in 1853, a paper read in 1851. Numerical details were formerly settled by making one of the heat reservoirs a cell at the triple point of water, which was defined to have an absolute temperature of 273.16 K. Nowadays, the numerical value is instead obtained from measurement through the microscopic statistical mechanical international definition, as above. In thermodynamic terms, temperature

9638-483: The deformation to become a plastic flow rather than elastic. Then, the glacier will begin to deform under its own weight and flow across the landscape. According to the Glen–Nye flow law , the relationship between stress and strain, and thus the rate of internal flow, can be modeled as follows: where: The lowest velocities are near the base of the glacier and along valley sides where friction acts against flow, causing

9760-863: The empirically based kind. Especially, it was used for calorimetry , which contributed greatly to the discovery of thermodynamics. Nevertheless, empirical thermometry has serious drawbacks when judged as a basis for theoretical physics. Empirically based thermometers, beyond their base as simple direct measurements of ordinary physical properties of thermometric materials, can be re-calibrated, by use of theoretical physical reasoning, and this can extend their range of adequacy. Theoretically based temperature scales are based directly on theoretical arguments, especially those of kinetic theory and thermodynamics. They are more or less ideally realized in practically feasible physical devices and materials. Theoretically based temperature scales are used to provide calibrating standards for practical empirically based thermometers. In physics,

9882-418: The essentially correct explanation in the 1840s, although it was several decades before it was fully accepted. The top 50 m (160 ft) of a glacier are rigid because they are under low pressure . This upper section is known as the fracture zone and moves mostly as a single unit over the plastic-flowing lower section. When a glacier moves through irregular terrain, cracks called crevasses develop in

10004-455: The formulation of the first law of thermodynamics. Carnot had no sound understanding of heat and no specific concept of entropy. He wrote of 'caloric' and said that all the caloric that passed from the hot reservoir was passed into the cold reservoir. Kelvin wrote in his 1848 paper that his scale was absolute in the sense that it was defined "independently of the properties of any particular kind of matter". His definitive publication, which sets out

10126-475: The fracture zone. Crevasses form because of differences in glacier velocity. If two rigid sections of a glacier move at different speeds or directions, shear forces cause them to break apart, opening a crevasse. Crevasses are seldom more than 46 m (150 ft) deep but, in some cases, can be at least 300 m (1,000 ft) deep. Beneath this point, the plasticity of the ice prevents the formation of cracks. Intersecting crevasses can create isolated peaks in

10248-495: The glacial base and facilitate sediment production and transport under the same moving speed and amount of ice. Material that becomes incorporated in a glacier is typically carried as far as the zone of ablation before being deposited. Glacial deposits are of two distinct types: Temperature Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied on various reference points and thermometric substances for definition. The most common scales are

10370-453: The glacier to melt, creating a water source that is especially important for plants, animals and human uses when other sources may be scant. However, within high-altitude and Antarctic environments, the seasonal temperature difference is often not sufficient to release meltwater. Since glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes, e.g., precipitation , mean temperature , and cloud cover , glacial mass changes are considered among

10492-428: The glacier will be accommodated by motion in the sediments, or if it'll be able to slide. A soft bed, with high porosity and low pore fluid pressure, allows the glacier to move by sediment sliding: the base of the glacier may even remain frozen to the bed, where the underlying sediment slips underneath it like a tube of toothpaste. A hard bed cannot deform in this way; therefore the only way for hard-based glaciers to move

10614-510: The glacier's surface area, more if the glacier calves icebergs. Ice in the accumulation zone is deep enough to exert a downward force that erodes underlying rock. After a glacier melts, it often leaves behind a bowl- or amphitheater-shaped depression that ranges in size from large basins like the Great Lakes to smaller mountain depressions known as cirques . The accumulation zone can be subdivided based on its melt conditions. The health of

10736-494: The hotness manifold. When two systems in thermal contact are at the same temperature no heat transfers between them. When a temperature difference does exist heat flows spontaneously from the warmer system to the colder system until they are in thermal equilibrium . Such heat transfer occurs by conduction or by thermal radiation. Experimental physicists, for example Galileo and Newton , found that there are indefinitely many empirical temperature scales . Nevertheless,

10858-619: The ice at the bottom of the glacier move more slowly than ice at the top. In alpine glaciers, friction is also generated at the valley's sidewalls, which slows the edges relative to the center. Mean glacial speed varies greatly but is typically around 1 m (3 ft) per day. There may be no motion in stagnant areas; for example, in parts of Alaska, trees can establish themselves on surface sediment deposits. In other cases, glaciers can move as fast as 20–30 m (70–100 ft) per day, such as in Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbræ . Glacial speed

10980-420: The ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, has been estimated at 170,000 km . Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, holding with ice sheets about 69 percent of the world's freshwater. Many glaciers from temperate , alpine and seasonal polar climates store water as ice during the colder seasons and release it later in the form of meltwater as warmer summer temperatures cause

11102-556: The ice to act as a lever that loosens the rock by lifting it. Thus, sediments of all sizes become part of the glacier's load. If a retreating glacier gains enough debris, it may become a rock glacier , like the Timpanogos Glacier in Utah. Abrasion occurs when the ice and its load of rock fragments slide over bedrock and function as sandpaper, smoothing and polishing the bedrock below. The pulverized rock this process produces

11224-488: The ice, called seracs . Crevasses can form in several different ways. Transverse crevasses are transverse to flow and form where steeper slopes cause a glacier to accelerate. Longitudinal crevasses form semi-parallel to flow where a glacier expands laterally. Marginal crevasses form near the edge of the glacier, caused by the reduction in speed caused by friction of the valley walls. Marginal crevasses are largely transverse to flow. Moving glacier ice can sometimes separate from

11346-411: The idea that meltwater, refreezing inside glaciers, caused the glacier to dilate and extend its length. As it became clear that glaciers behaved to some degree as if the ice were a viscous fluid, it was argued that "regelation", or the melting and refreezing of ice at a temperature lowered by the pressure on the ice inside the glacier, was what allowed the ice to deform and flow. James Forbes came up with

11468-418: The increased pressure can facilitate melting. Most importantly, τ D is increased. These factors will combine to accelerate the glacier. As friction increases with the square of velocity, faster motion will greatly increase frictional heating, with ensuing melting – which causes a positive feedback, increasing ice speed to a faster flow rate still: west Antarctic glaciers are known to reach velocities of up to

11590-423: The infrared OH stretching mode of the water molecule. (Liquid water appears blue for the same reason. The blue of glacier ice is sometimes misattributed to Rayleigh scattering of bubbles in the ice.) A glacier originates at a location called its glacier head and terminates at its glacier foot, snout, or terminus . Glaciers are broken into zones based on surface snowpack and melt conditions. The ablation zone

11712-419: The internal energy at a point, while when local thermodynamic equilibrium prevails, it makes good sense to speak of the temperature at a point. Consequently, the temperature can vary from point to point in a medium that is not in global thermodynamic equilibrium, but in which there is local thermodynamic equilibrium. Thus, when local thermodynamic equilibrium prevails in a body, the temperature can be regarded as

11834-409: The internationally agreed conventional temperature scale is called the Kelvin scale. It is calibrated through the internationally agreed and prescribed value of the Boltzmann constant, referring to motions of microscopic particles, such as atoms, molecules, and electrons, constituent in the body whose temperature is to be measured. In contrast with the thermodynamic temperature scale invented by Kelvin,

11956-428: The magnitude of the kelvin was defined in thermodynamic terms, but nowadays, as mentioned above, it is defined in terms of kinetic theory. The thermodynamic temperature is said to be absolute for two reasons. One is that its formal character is independent of the properties of particular materials. The other reason is that its zero is, in a sense, absolute, in that it indicates absence of microscopic classical motion of

12078-419: The mechanisms of operation of the thermometers. For experimental physics, hotness means that, when comparing any two given bodies in their respective separate thermodynamic equilibria , any two suitably given empirical thermometers with numerical scale readings will agree as to which is the hotter of the two given bodies, or that they have the same temperature. This does not require the two thermometers to have

12200-444: The middle of the nineteenth century. Empirically based temperature scales rely directly on measurements of simple macroscopic physical properties of materials. For example, the length of a column of mercury, confined in a glass-walled capillary tube, is dependent largely on temperature and is the basis of the very useful mercury-in-glass thermometer. Such scales are valid only within convenient ranges of temperature. For example, above

12322-435: The molecules. Heating will also cause, through equipartitioning , the energy associated with vibrational and rotational modes to increase. Thus a diatomic gas will require more energy input to increase its temperature by a certain amount, i.e. it will have a greater heat capacity than a monatomic gas. As noted above, the speed of sound in a gas can be calculated from the gas's molecular character, temperature, pressure, and

12444-679: The most deformation. Velocity increases inward toward the center line and upward, as the amount of deformation decreases. The highest flow velocities are found at the surface, representing the sum of the velocities of all the layers below. Because ice can flow faster where it is thicker, the rate of glacier-induced erosion is directly proportional to the thickness of overlying ice. Consequently, pre-glacial low hollows will be deepened and pre-existing topography will be amplified by glacial action, while nunataks , which protrude above ice sheets, barely erode at all – erosion has been estimated as 5 m per 1.2 million years. This explains, for example,

12566-445: The most sensitive indicators of climate change and are a major source of variations in sea level . A large piece of compressed ice, or a glacier, appears blue , as large quantities of water appear blue , because water molecules absorb other colors more efficiently than blue. The other reason for the blue color of glaciers is the lack of air bubbles. Air bubbles, which give a white color to ice, are squeezed out by pressure increasing

12688-400: The noise-power is directly proportional to the temperature of the resistor and to the value of its resistance and to the noise bandwidth. In a given frequency band, the noise-power has equal contributions from every frequency and is called Johnson noise . If the value of the resistance is known then the temperature can be found. Historically, till May 2019, the definition of the Kelvin scale

12810-423: The point chosen as zero degrees and the magnitudes of the incremental unit of temperature. The Celsius scale (°C) is used for common temperature measurements in most of the world. It is an empirical scale that developed historically, which led to its zero point 0 °C being defined as the freezing point of water , and 100 °C as the boiling point of water, both at atmospheric pressure at sea level. It

12932-725: The pooling of meltwater at the base of the glacier  — perhaps delivered from a supraglacial lake  — or the simple accumulation of mass beyond a critical "tipping point". Temporary rates up to 90 m (300 ft) per day have occurred when increased temperature or overlying pressure caused bottom ice to melt and water to accumulate beneath a glacier. In glaciated areas where the glacier moves faster than one km per year, glacial earthquakes occur. These are large scale earthquakes that have seismic magnitudes as high as 6.1. The number of glacial earthquakes in Greenland peaks every year in July, August, and September and increased rapidly in

13054-454: The presently conventional Kelvin temperature is not defined through comparison with the temperature of a reference state of a standard body, nor in terms of macroscopic thermodynamics. Apart from the absolute zero of temperature, the Kelvin temperature of a body in a state of internal thermodynamic equilibrium is defined by measurements of suitably chosen of its physical properties, such as have precisely known theoretical explanations in terms of

13176-410: The pressure of the layers of ice and snow above it, this granular ice fuses into denser firn. Over a period of years, layers of firn undergo further compaction and become glacial ice. Glacier ice is slightly more dense than ice formed from frozen water because glacier ice contains fewer trapped air bubbles. Glacial ice has a distinctive blue tint because it absorbs some red light due to an overtone of

13298-403: The reservoirs are defined such that The zeroth law of thermodynamics allows this definition to be used to measure the absolute or thermodynamic temperature of an arbitrary body of interest, by making the other heat reservoir have the same temperature as the body of interest. Kelvin's original work postulating absolute temperature was published in 1848. It was based on the work of Carnot, before

13420-567: The sea, often with an ice tongue , like Mertz Glacier . Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that terminate in the sea, including most glaciers flowing from Greenland, Antarctica, Baffin , Devon , and Ellesmere Islands in Canada, Southeast Alaska , and the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields . As the ice reaches the sea, pieces break off or calve, forming icebergs . Most tidewater glaciers calve above sea level, which often results in

13542-453: The spectrum of their velocities often nearly obeys a theoretical law called the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution , which gives a well-founded measurement of temperatures for which the law holds. There have not yet been successful experiments of this same kind that directly use the Fermi–Dirac distribution for thermometry, but perhaps that will be achieved in the future. The speed of sound in

13664-409: The stagnant ice above, forming a bergschrund . Bergschrunds resemble crevasses but are singular features at a glacier's margins. Crevasses make travel over glaciers hazardous, especially when they are hidden by fragile snow bridges . Below the equilibrium line, glacial meltwater is concentrated in stream channels. Meltwater can pool in proglacial lakes on top of a glacier or descend into the depths of

13786-423: The stress being applied, ice will act as an elastic solid. Ice needs to be at least 30 m (98 ft) thick to even start flowing, but once its thickness exceeds about 50 m (160 ft) (160 ft), stress on the layer above will exceeds the inter-layer binding strength, and then it'll move faster than the layer below. This means that small amounts of stress can result in a large amount of strain, causing

13908-407: The study by methods of classical irreversible thermodynamics, a body is usually spatially and temporally divided conceptually into 'cells' of small size. If classical thermodynamic equilibrium conditions for matter are fulfilled to good approximation in such a 'cell', then it is homogeneous and a temperature exists for it. If this is so for every 'cell' of the body, then local thermodynamic equilibrium

14030-438: The surface snowpack may experience seasonal melting. A subpolar glacier includes both temperate and polar ice, depending on the depth beneath the surface and position along the length of the glacier. In a similar way, the thermal regime of a glacier is often described by its basal temperature. A cold-based glacier is below freezing at the ice-ground interface and is thus frozen to the underlying substrate. A warm-based glacier

14152-428: The transfer of matter and has a special emphasis on directly experimental procedures. A presentation of thermodynamics by Gibbs starts at a more abstract level and deals with systems open to the transfer of matter; in this development of thermodynamics, the equations (2) and (3) above are actually alternative definitions of temperature. Real-world bodies are often not in thermodynamic equilibrium and not homogeneous. For

14274-428: The value of the Boltzmann constant as a primarily defined reference of exactly defined value, a measurement of the speed of sound can provide a more precise measurement of the temperature of the gas. Measurement of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation from an ideal three-dimensional black body can provide an accurate temperature measurement because the frequency of maximum spectral radiance of black-body radiation

14396-417: The weight of the ice is supported by the underlying water, and the glacier is afloat. Glaciers may also move by basal sliding , where the base of the glacier is lubricated by the presence of liquid water, reducing basal shear stress and allowing the glacier to slide over the terrain on which it sits. Meltwater may be produced by pressure-induced melting, friction or geothermal heat . The more variable

14518-411: The zeroth law of thermodynamics. In particular, when the body is described by stating its internal energy U , an extensive variable, as a function of its entropy S , also an extensive variable, and other state variables V , N , with U = U ( S , V , N ), then the temperature is equal to the partial derivative of the internal energy with respect to the entropy: Likewise, when

14640-432: Was called a centigrade scale because of the 100-degree interval. Since the standardization of the kelvin in the International System of Units, it has subsequently been redefined in terms of the equivalent fixing points on the Kelvin scale, so that a temperature increment of one degree Celsius is the same as an increment of one kelvin, though numerically the scales differ by an exact offset of 273.15. The Fahrenheit scale

14762-421: Was defined to be exactly 273.16 K . Since May 2019, that value has not been fixed by definition but is to be measured through microscopic phenomena, involving the Boltzmann constant, as described above. The microscopic statistical mechanical definition does not have a reference temperature. A material on which a macroscopically defined temperature scale may be based is the ideal gas . The pressure exerted by

14884-411: Was that invented by Kelvin, based on a ratio of quantities of energy in processes in an ideal Carnot engine, entirely in terms of macroscopic thermodynamics. That Carnot engine was to work between two temperatures, that of the body whose temperature was to be measured, and a reference, that of a body at the temperature of the triple point of water. Then the reference temperature, that of the triple point,

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