PABLO AND THE GLACIER by myles, james, And YAHSIEL
One day after lunch, Pablo wanted to play. “Can I go play over there?” he asked, pointing to a ridge a little ways away. “Yes,” said Daddy Penguin.
“Yay!” said Pablo. Then Daddy Penguin cleaned up the lunch and followed Pablo. “Wait up,” said Daddy Penguin. “Don't go too far without me!” “Ok daddy,” said Pablo.
Once Daddy Penguin caught up to Pablo, he said, “Guess what, Pablo? We are standing on a glacier!”
“A glacier is a field of ice that moves,” said Daddy Penguin. “How is it made?” asked Pablo. “What’s a glacier, Daddy Penguin?” asked Pablo, looking down to his feet.
“Glaciers form when more snow falls in the winter than melts in the summer. This eventually leads to the snow building up higher and higher and getting heavier and heavier,” explained Daddy Penguin. “After the snow gets buried deep enough, and after a very long time in which the snow is compressed, it turns into firn. Firn is small corn kernel sized grains of ice that is formed when snow gets packed. together.
After that, the firn turns into get packed into larger chunks of ice, which are at the bottom of the glacier. But in some places in the tropics, there is not as much snow as we get here, so glaciers there are only on mountain tops. The summers there are very hot and snow that falls gets melted easily, so we’re lucky to live here.
“Glaciers cover 95% of Antarctica and a lot of mountain tops. Isn’t that so cool?! Hey, where did you go Pablo?”
Daddy Penguin asked. Just then, a wing descended into a 3-foot-wide, very long crack in the glacier. “Daddy, come on in, it’s fun!” exclaimed Pablo.
“Wait up!” called Daddy Penguin. “Wheeeee!” said Pablo. He jumped lower into the massive crack in the glacier. “What’s this?” he called back up to his dad, “It must be over a hundred feet deep!” “This is called a crevasse, and this type forms when the glaciers speed up, or go downhill,” said Daddy. “But don’t go too deep, because the deeper you go the more dangerous it gets. When the glacier speeds up, it spreads out. So when it slows down, snap! The bottom shuts.” “Oh.” Pablo stopped jumping farther down into the crevasse.
“And stuff can fall in or break off the walls. Because glaciers are so big and so heavy, no one can survive being squished by one. Some glaciers are the size of some countries!” “Wow! But I’m confused.” “About what?” asked Daddy. “You keep saying that the glacier is moving, like when you explained what it was, how this crevasse formed, and when you were talking about the dangers of crevasses. But how does it move?”
“Glaciers move in two different ways. Daddy Penguin explained. One way they move is by creeping. When a glacier is creeping, it is moving slowly uphill or downhill. Another way a glacier can move is sliding. Also, we should start getting out of here.” They started to climb. “When a glacier is sliding, the ice at the bottom of the glacier melts and the water on the bottom reduces the friction between the ground and the glacier so the glacier moves very rapidly downhill,” continued Daddy Penguin. “You said it went uphill. How does a chunk of ice go uphill?” said Pablo, struggling to reach for a ledge.
Snow
Ice
melt Water
Firn
“When a glacier goes uphill, it is called retreating,” replied Daddy, “Retreating is caused when there are different amounts of snowfall each year. If the snow melts a lot, then the terminus (the front of the glacier) is farther uphill. It can take a long time to see the change, sometimes up to a decades,” said Daddy as he climbed higher. Finally, they got out of the crevasse.
“A part of a glacier is an accumulation zone. That is what you saw at the top of the glacier. An accumulation zone is a place where a glacier gains snow and ice, and the gravity compresses snow into ice. “Tell me more, Daddy,” said Pablo. “Ok. An ablation zone is where the ice melts, and then more ice comes down because the glacier keeps moving. Then more ice melts and it becomes a cycle.” “That’s so cool! So when we get to the bottom we will see the ablation zone?” said Pablo, walking faster towards the front of the glacier. “Yes we will!” answered Daddy Penguin.
“And there is another part called the lateral moraine. This forms when the edge grinds up bed rock and forms a barrier of rocks on the side of the glacier. If two glaciers come together, the two lateral moraines come together and form a medial moraine in the middle of the glacier.” “Wow, that’s so cool,” interrupted Pablo, as they walked towards the front of the glacier. “It’s so heavy that it carves out valleys, drops big rocks that it rips out of the earth, and forms rocky mountains,” continued Daddy Penguin.
“Another cool thing that forms from glaciers is an iceberg. In fact, they often form right near here,” he said as they came to the edge of the glacier. “Wow, I wonder if we’ll see one form!” said Pablo excitedly. A look of dread came over Daddy’s face. “We should probably back away,” he said. “Why?” “Because-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” The edge of the glacier shuddered and cracked, and then sheared off from the rest of it. Snow and ice splashed into the water with deafening crashes. Then it was over. A massive sculpture like chunk of ice, the size of a school, floated in the water. It glittered icy blueish-green.
“Wow. That was fun!” said Pablo. He popped up out of a small dip in the ice. “Daddy? Where’d you go?” “H-here I am, s-son.” Daddy unsteadily rose to his feet. “We are probably the first living things to witness a glacier calving from on top of the part that calves,” he said with a shaky laugh. “Calving? What’s calving?” asked Pablo. “Calving is when the coastal chunk of a glacier breaks off from the main part of the glacier. When just a small chunk breaks off, or just part of the face of the edge, it is normally a non-tabular iceberg. When it slides on to the water before it breaks, then it often forms a tabular iceberg. Tabular icebergs have steep sides and flat tops. They are sort of like a plateaus of ice. They are generally bigger then nontabular icebergs, sometimes being the size of small countries!” “Wow!” Pablo exclaimed.
“The biggest iceberg ever recorded was called B-15. It was the size of Connecticut! And before you ask, nontabular icebergs are simply icebergs that are not tabular icebergs. They sometimes have spires and arches, and other cool shapes. We are on a nontabular iceberg,” explained Daddy. “That’s cool,” said Pablo, waddling to the edge of the iceberg and looking down.
“Uh-oh,” said Daddy. “What?” said Pablo anxiously, hurriedly backing away from the edge. “Is it going to calve again?” “No, but look how far we drifted from the shore! Swim!” And with that, Pablo and Daddy jumped off the iceberg, shot into the water, and swam as fast as they could towards the shore.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
James
yahsiel
Myles
I’m A 12 year old boy from leverett Elementary school, Complete Nerd, total geek and an avid sport lover.
i’m 12 years old and i love soccer and playing outside.
I’m 12 and i love to play sports, like basketball, soccer, track and ultimate frisbee.
Non tabular icebergs are icebergs that do not have steep sides and flat tops.
Medial moraines are like lateral moraines but are larger and are near the snout of the glacier.
Spires are tall sharp towers of ice and are only on non tabular glaciers.
Works Cited Kallen, Stuart A. Icebergs. Kidhaven Press, 2003. national snow and ice data center. nsidc.org/ cryosphere/glaciers/questions/move.html. Accessed 4 Feb. 2017. Sepehri, Sandy. Glaciers. North Mankato, Rourke Publishing, 2008. Simon, Seymour. Icebergs and Glaciers. William Morrow and Company, 1987.