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In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than 50,000 km 2 (19,000 sq mi) of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than 50,000 km 2 (19,000 sq mi) are termed ice sheets .
In ice sheets, domes may reach a thickness that may exceed 3,000 meters (9,800 feet). However, in ice caps, the thickness of the dome is much smaller, measuring roughly up to several hundred metres in comparison. [5] In glaciated islands, ice domes are usually the highest point of the ice cap. [5]
A polar ice cap or polar cap is a high-latitude region of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite that is covered in ice. [ 1 ] There are no requirements with respect to size or composition for a body of ice to be termed a polar ice cap, nor any geological requirement for it to be over land, but only that it must be a body of solid phase ...
Glaciers often form on the edges of ice fields, serving as gravity-propelled drains off the ice field which is in turn replenished by snowfall. While an ice cap is not constrained by topography, an ice field is. An ice field is also distinguishable from an ice cap because it does not have a dome-like form. [2]
A Assuming an altitude of 194 metres above mean sea level (the worldwide median altitude of human habitation), an indoor temperature of 23 °C, a dewpoint of 9 °C (40.85% relative humidity), and 760 mmHg sea level–corrected barometric pressure (molar water vapor content = 1.16%).
Greenland ice sheet as seen from space. An ice sheet is a body of ice which covers a land area of continental size - meaning that it exceeds 50,000 km 2. [4] The currently existing two ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have a much greater area than this minimum definition, measuring at 1.7 million km 2 and 14 million km 2, respectively.
The largest ice formations on Earth are the two ice sheets which almost completely cover the world's largest island, Greenland, and the continent of Antarctica. These ice sheets have an average thickness of over 1 km (0.6 mi) and have existed for millions of years. [57] [58] Other major ice formations on land include ice caps, ice fields, ice ...
The Fennoscandian Ice Sheet of the Weichselian glaciation most likely grew out of a mountain glaciation of small ice fields and ice caps in the Scandinavian Mountains.The initial glaciation of the Scandinavian Mountains would have been enabled by moisture coming from the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains high altitude.