Snow and perennial ice

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FRAGILE ALPINE ENVIRONMENTS

Distribution patterns and interactions

Snow, permafrost and/or glaciers can be found on all continents, even in the tropics of South America, Africa and New Guinea (see Figure 1). Although snow and ice in non-polar areas sometimes have a limited distribution, they can have important economical and ecological impacts. Today ice masses of all glaciers and ice sheets cover about 10% of the total land surface. At the time of the largest glaciation in the Pleistocene about 30% was covered.

distribution of ice worldwide

1 - Map of the distribution of sea ice, permafrost, snow fall in planes and ice sheets (Greenland and Antarctica).
Source: Reinwarth and Stäblein (1972)

Compare the values below and fill in the missing numbers.
How many meters would the sea level rise if the global ice masses melt? Which parts of the world would be overflown if only the ice masses outside of Antarctica melt?

atmosphere	13
rivers, lakes	127
ground water	7000
ground moisture	150
ice, snow	26 000
Total	ca. 35 000

Inferred fresh water mass on the earth (in 10⁶ km³).

Source: Shumskii (1964)

latitude in °	glaciers in % of the land surface	ground ice in % of the land surface	sea ice in % of the sea surface	glacier, ground ice, sea ice in % of the earth surface
90 N- 80 N	68.50	31.50	92.50 - 97.30	93.20 - 97.60
< 80 N - 70 N	35.80	64.20	66.10 - 86.90	76.10 - 90.80
< 70 N - 60 N	4.50	80.30	22.80 - 65.20	67.70 - 79.00
< 60 N - 50 N	0.30	45.20	7.06 - 35.10	29.30 - 41.10
< 50 N - 40 N	0.07	5.70	4.10 - 13.10	5.00 - 9.30
< 40 N - 25 N	0.47	1.70	0	0.91
< 25 N - 30 S	0	0	0	0
> 30 S - 35 S	0.08	0.01	0	0.01
> 35 S - 50 S	0.84	0.10	0	0.04
> 50 S - 60 S	10.90	0.80	0 - 11.10	0.19 - 17.80
> 60 S - 90 S	99.93	0.07	24.50 - 84.20	55.20 - 90.60

Distribution of the ice masses in different geographical latitudes. Source: Shumskii (1964)

29 August 2011 © ALPECOLe 2002-2007