JUNEAU, ALASKA -USA
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In the background is Mendenhall Glacier which is near the city of Juneau. You can only get here by plane or boat because there are no roads through the glaciers. A glacier is a giant frozen river that moves very slowly, usually only about one inch a day. Glaciers are formed when the winter snow doesn't melt in the summer.Over many years the snow accumulates and packs down into ice. This ice is heavy and will start to slowly move down the mountain. It will drag rocks and boulders with it and will scour the mountain with them like sandpaper, carving out the valleys. If all the glaciers melted, the oceans would rise about 200 feet and flood our coastal cities. The oceans would also be much less salty, because glaciers hold a lot of the earth's fresh water.
