• Question: what is the longest time a glacier can stay in water ?

    Asked by anon-189948 to Liam, Dionne on 8 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Liam Taylor

      Liam Taylor answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Great question! You know how if you put ice in your drink, it floats? Thats the same for glaciers – some of them that flow all the way down to the sea can float at the end. We call these floaty bits ‘ice shelves’. Because it’s like a river, there is a constant conveyor belt of ice coming, so ice shelves can last a very long time and be enormous. Some of the biggest are in Antarctica and are floating for hundreds of miles!

    • Photo: Dionne Turnbull

      Dionne Turnbull answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Wow! I guess the ideal answer to the longest time a glacier can stay in water is – forever! That would mean no rise in sea level. There will be a balance between bits of it growing and bits of it melting, if the balance is right then the glacier will stay a glacier… Liam is the pro at this stuff though!

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