Why are glaciers the bulk of the Earth s freshwater resources?

Glaciers are formed by the accumulation of snowfall over many years. A natural body of ice that has a certain shape, is moving, and has existed for a long time in cold areas on the surface. Unlike general artificial or naturally frozen ice, glacier ice is transformed from snow that falls to the ground.

The crystals of the snow gradually round into granular snow, so that the density of the snow cover gradually increases. This process proceeds most rapidly when the temperature is close to the melting point and in the presence of liquid water. Subsequently, the average particle size of the dominant recrystallization increased.

When the density of the aggregate reaches approx? At cubic centimeters, there are no gaps between the particles and they become impermeable. This marks the transition from granular snow to glacial ice.

Some areas of the earth are covered by water, but the water in it is salty and undrinkable. Of the remaining freshwater, 87 are ice and snow from polar ice sheets, mountain glaciers and permafrost that are difficult for humans to use, and are mainly distributed in the north and south poles.

What why? This is based on the actual situation, right? Freshwater reserves account for only one of the world's total water, and some of them are solid glaciers.

As for why, who said that the earth had an ice age? Those who stayed at that time!

Because most of the earth's freshwater is concentrated in the North and South poles.

Glaciers are not natural resources. Natural resources refer to all tangible and intangible things in nature that human beings can directly or indirectly use to meet human needs, and natural resources are dynamic and can provide human beings with materials for survival, development and enjoyment. It can be divided into three categories, one is:Non-updatable resources, the second is renewable resources, and the third is an inexhaustible resource.

Glaciers (physical geography).

Natural ice bodies that exist on the surface of the earth for many years in polar or alpine regions and have a state of movement along the ground. Glaciers are formed by the accumulation of snow for many years, which is formed by ice formation such as compaction, recrystallization, and refreezing. It has a certain shape and layer, and has plasticity, under gravity and pressure, it produces plastic flow and block sliding, and is an important freshwater resource on the surface.

The International Inventory of Glaciers stipulates that any area exceeding square kilometres.

of perennial snowdrifts and ice bodies should be included in the glacier inventory.

Formation. Glaciers are a form of water that is transformed by snow through a series of changes. To form a glacier, there must first be a certain amount of solid precipitation, including snow, fog, hail, etc.

If there is not enough solid precipitation as a "raw material", it will be equivalent to "cooking without rice", and it will not form a glacier at all.

In the high mountains, glaciers can develop, and in addition to a certain altitude, the mountains are not too steep. If the mountain peaks are too steep, the snow will fall down the slope and will not form snow and form glaciers. As soon as the snowflakes fall to the ground, they change, and as the outside world changes in finesse and time, the snowflakes turn into spherical snow that completely loses its crystalline characteristics, which is called granular snow, which is the "raw material" of glaciers.

After the snow becomes granular snow, over time, the hardness of the granular snow and the tightness between them increases, large and small particles of snow are pressed against each other, tightly inlaid together, and the pores between them continue to shrink so that they disappear, the brightness and transparency of the snow layer gradually weaken, and some air is also enclosed in it, so that glacial ice is formed.

The process of grain snowization and compacting proceeds quickly at a temperature close to the melting point. At negative low temperatures, proceed slowly. Glacier ice is milky white when it first formed, and over time, the glacier ice becomes denser and harder, and the bubbles inside gradually decrease, slowly turning into crystal-like old glacier ice with a blue color.

It is true that most of the freshwater resources on land exist in the form of glaciers in the Arctic and North poles.

The vast majority of the Earth's freshwater resources exist in the form of glaciers in the North and South Poles; The rest mainly include deep groundwater, shallow groundwater, surface runoff, lakes, water in the atmosphere Shallow groundwater, surface runoff, lakes, together account for freshwater resources, that is, water used by people.

Classification of glaciers:

Glaciers are mainly distributed in the poles of the earth and the high mountains in the middle and low latitudes, covering an area of more than 16 million square kilometers in the world, accounting for about 11% of the total land area of the earth. The glaciers in the polar regions cover almost the entire polar region and are called continental glaciers, also known as ice sheet glaciers. Glaciers in high mountains at middle and low latitudes are called mountain glaciers, also known as alpine glaciers.

Ninety-seven per cent of the Earth's glaciers and 99 per cent of the ice are found in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

A small portion of the Earth's freshwater resources are found in lakes, rivers, soils and shallow groundwater below the surface, while most are stored in the form of glaciers, permafrost and permafrost.

Freshwater resources are what we usually call water resources, which refers to the freshwater resources on land. It is made up of water from rivers and lakes, mountain snow, glaciers, and groundwater. Without water, there is no life.

Only three percent of the earth's water is freshwater, all terrestrial life depends on freshwater in the final analysis, it determines the distribution of life on the earth, water vapor rises from the sea, is carried inland by the air current, with the increase in altitude, converges into clouds of rainfall, which is also one of the basic ** freshwater, streams converge on the rushing river, carved out of the wonders of nature, the river provides many wildlife habitats, pregnant with rich species, whether it is high mountains, or the bottom of the lake, where there is fresh water, there is life.

Yes, most of the freshwater resources on land are in the form of glaciers in the Arctic and North Poles.

There are many icebergs in the Arctic and Antarctica, and these icebergs are both seawater glaciers and freshwater icebergs.

When the sea freezes, the salt will precipitate, but such a glacier is still counted as a sea water glacier, and such a sea water glacier will have a much lower salt content than the surrounding sea water; Glaciers that end up in snowfall in the Arctic and Antarctic are freshwater glaciers.

In the long river of history, during the Quaternary Ice Age, 1 3 continents in the world were covered by ice and snow, the global glacier area reached 52 million square kilometers, and the silver level of the sea acres fell by about 130 meters.

After the Quaternary Ice Age, glaciers began to melt year after year, and if all the current glaciers melted, the sea level would rise, and many continents would be covered by the ocean again.