what is the difference between glaciers and moving water?
83750
A glacier is a moving mass of ice (frozen water).  Moving water is something you would find in a river.\n\nSometimes glaciers are referred to as "rivers of ice."  Which is true, but they flow at much much slower rates of speed.  The flow characteristics are similar in some ways, but very different in others.
734739
Glaciers flow because of gravity.\n\nView this page:\nhttp://www.answers.com/topic/last-glacial-maximum\nFor info and a pic of what the world probably looked like during the last ice age. The grey denotes glaciers. The land (brown) has been adjusted for the drop in sea level and the ocean temperature difference is shown.\n\nThe ocean levels dropped. Much of the continental shelf which is now under water was exposed, dry land. The water that now covers them was locked up in the the glaciers.\n\nAlso look:\nhttp://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/RefPages/RefMedia.aspx?refid=461527006&artrefid=761570002&pn=3&sec=-1
629453
warm water dissolves ice faster than warm air because it can transfer and absorb heat faster than warm air of the same temperature
1042930
The water cycle — technically known as the hydrologic cycle — is the continuous circulation of water within the Earth's hydrosphere, and is driven by solar radiation. This includes the atmosphere, land, surface water and groundwater. As water moves through the cycle, it changes state between liquid, solid, and gas phases. Water moves from compartment to compartment, such as from river to ocean, by the physical processes of evaporation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow. Movement of water within the water cycle is the subject of the field of hydrology.
117863
First, there have been proof of river beds and the like being found when space probes landed there.  Second, there are ice caps seen at the poles, and that's a sign of water as well.  But as for standing water, water that EXISTS right now, there is no sign or proof.  So it may have been there in the past, but not right now...
347460
A pond is usually smaller than a lake. A pond usually has mostly still water, while a lake may have currents. Ponds are overall much more shallow than lakes, which can be very deep. Typically, a pond has no surface outflow draining off water and ponds are often spring-fed. A lake is usually fed by several streams. The water temperature of a pond is usually the same throughout, while a lake may have layers of different temperatures in its depths. Lastly, ponds have more plant life than lakes. Plants may completely cover a pond, but lakes only have plants on the edges.
392546
heat speeds up movement because molecules shrink and there is more room for movement. cold slows down molecule movement because they expand and there is less room for movement. It's basic physical science.
87965
We never get new water here on earth..it's just recycled. The water cycle defined is "Transition and movement of water involving evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, percolation, runoff, and storage."\n\nWater falls in the form of precipitation (snow, rain, etc). Some of it seeps into the ground that makes up our water aquifers (perculation), some is in the form of runoff (rivers, streams), eventually water makes its way to lakes, ponds, oceans, etc and is stored. Some water is taken up by plants and is stored there. It leaves "storage" when the water evaporates and through transpiration in plants (plants lose water through their leaves which is why they seem especially prone to wilting on a hot windy day).\n\nCondensation is when water goes from a gaseous state back to a liquid state. An example of this putting your breath on a cold window or mirror and watching the water droplets form.\n\nHope this helped. It's a simplified explanation, but it will get you started.
237724
Infact, FLOWING water does freeze. but FLOWING WATER cannot freeze completely at 32 degrees providing it is attinaing warmth from somewhaere else. If you check the temp of a glass of ice water. It is 32 degrees but it is not completely frozen! 32 degrees is when ice begins to form &/or can sustain itself. The only reason your ice melts is because the water temp surrounding the ice is conducting the heat of the room which in turn tries to rise the water temp. While the ice is trying to hold the temp @ 32 degrees. Eventually the ice will melt; it releases cold in the form of water, to cool the water surrounding it. But because the warmth of the room is indefinate, the ice will eventually melt away as it is unable to hold the temp. Now if you put you ice water in a freezer that's set at 32 degrees. Your water will freeze. Because the water is no longer drawing the energy it needs to sustain its heat so the ice wins and freezes the water. \nSo how the heck does this pertain to rivers and moving water?\nMoving water is gaining warmth from the ground and the air. but becaue its moveing the temp of 32 degrees is not easily sustained so the ice melts and refreezes as it travels, because the weather changes and temps change ect. The only way to freeze moving water it to either:\n1. Have it be so cold that the water nearly immidiatly freezes (well below zero) or \n2. Have a sustained temp of below 32 for several hundreds of miles. \nNow if you put the water in a water rocker and put it in the fridge at 32 degrees it will freeze solid at some point because the temp is sustained and really how long it takes for it to freeze is the ultimate question. which depends entirely on the temp.\n-hope that helps
93319
Bairdt found a good website for the information, but Id like to point out that the North Pole does NOT have a glacier--the North Pole is covered by the Arctic Ocean--the surface of which is frozen as sea ice (not glacial ice).  I think sea ice can be as much as 10 feet thick, though.  Antarctica (around the South Pole) contains two continental ice sheets--the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS).\n\nContinental glaciers are defined by their size (they cover very large areas of land and/or shallow ocean floor) and by their flow characteristics.  Since they are so large, they may have several different areas of accumulation, but generally flow in a radial pattern--similar to how pancake batter flows radially when you plop a spoonful onto a griddle.\n\nA valley glacier (or alpine glacier) is restricted to a valley.  They generally form at high altitudes near the divides in mountain ranges.  The initial valley they start in is called a cirque.  A small glacier occupying a cirque is called a cirque glacier (see #1 below--theres a bunch of little glaciers sitting in cirques).  When enough snow falls over a period of years, the glacier grows and flows down mountain valleys.  It then becomes a valley glacier.  #2 below is a great photo of a valley glacier--it looks like a river.  A valley glacier can ultimately flow out of its valley onto a piedmont and spread out.\n\nAs Bairdt pointed out, valley glaciers erode the walls of the valley they occupy.  The glaciers flow characteristics cause the valley to look u-shaped if you look at it in cross-section (check out #3 below!  That is as perfect a u-shaped valley as you will ever see).  Stream valleys are typically v-shaped.\n\nCheck out #4--a continental ice sheet.  Note that as far as you can see is ice.
873524
Glacial drift: Till : moraine : Lateral moraines : terminal moraine\n\nGlacial drift is the loose and unsorted rock debris distributed by glaciers and glacial meltwaters. Rocks may be dropped in place by the melting ice; they may be rolled to the ice margins, or they may be deposited by meltwater streams. Collectively, these deposits are called glacial drift. Till refers to the debris deposited directly by the glacier. Rock debris rolls off the glacier edges and builds piles of loose unconsolidated rocks called glacier moraine. Lateral moraines form along the side of a glacier and curl into a terminal moraine.
685755
Ice water.  Ice is the solid phase and the water is the liquid phase.
600189
Water (rain, snow, dew, ...) which ends up higher than sea level will flow toward the sea if there is any possible path. Since even a mountainous 'bowl' is likely to have a porous bottom, or to fill enough to find an outlet, there will almost always be a flow to lower levels. \n\nFlowing water is not a neglibible force. It will, over geologic time move, dissolve, pulverize, and remove material. Freeze/thaw cycles contribute more than a bit; the Old Stone Face in new Hampshire in N America has recently fallen (literally) to this. Some of that material will be dropped downstream, filling in an existing channel. Spring floods (in places in which snow and ice accumulate on high ground) will provide an annual increase in this erosion, and if they break over channel banks, will accelerate the deposition process (eg, the Nile floods until the installation of dams to stop them). \n\nOver geologic time, a stream (or river) will fill channels repeatedly and will find new flow paths after doing so. What with dumping material from higher levels, and doing it in channels here and there across the gap between highlands, there will be a gradual acretion of soil in that gap. \n\nEventually, the flowing water, combined on occasion with wind and plant and animal soil processing (earthworms, for instance), there will be a more or less level filiing of the gap between highlands, with water flowing across it on the way to the sea. \n\nThat space, with a history more or less as sketched is a valley. Tehy can be narrow (a kilometer or less) or wide (several hundred kilometes). In fact, they can be so wide that it's not possible for a human to see both highlands between which the water flows at the same time. Valleys can also be very long if the highlands are arranged to permit. Consider the Nile, the Danube, the Volga, the Mississippi, or the Ganges. \n\nIn short, highlands erode, flatten out, and fill in the gaps between them. This can be seen in Britain (whose hills and mountains wer once higher) and in the North American Appalacians (whcih were once very very impressively tall). The N American Rockies, S American Andes, and Asian Himalyas are examples of the early stages in this process. Some millions of years hence, all three of these mountain ranges will be much lower and rounder.
239288
they are forms of water or precipitation
211211
You need to think about this in terms of the question, that is what one of these processes involves movement of sediment.\n\nWeathering does involve movement of sediment, since weathering includes lots of processes that break down rocks into smaller particles or even dissolve rocks. Dissolution of limestone by carbonic acid in water is weathering that 'moves' rock. Freeze-thaw weathering of sandstone breaks the sandstone into smaller particles that are carried away by water, gravity, and wind. \n\nDeposition is the end result of the process of moving sediment, and may be the only one that does not answer your question, but because it is part of the process of 'moving' sediment it probably counts. \n\nErosion definitely moves sediment. Soil, sand, and rock are eroded by moving water and transported to new locations. \n\nAbrasion results in 'moving' sediment. Glaciers abrade underlying rock and grind it into small particles. Wind blows sand grains against rock and abrades it and reduces it to smaller particles. \n\nI think the only correct answer here is "all of the above.”
150720
"Ice that makes up glaciers originally fell on its surface as snow. To become ice, this snow underwent modifications that caused it to become more compact and dense. Glacial ice has a density of about 850 kilograms per cubic meter. The density of snow ranges from about 50 to 300 kilograms per cubic meter (the density of fresh water is approximately 1000 kilograms per cubic meter). After the snow falls, the crystals can be reduced by the effects of melting and sublimation. Scientists call this process ablation. For most glaciers, ablation is a phenomena dominant in the summer months. The snow also undergoes physical compaction through melting and refreezing. At first, these processes cause the original snowflakes to be transformed into small round crystals. This partly melted, compressed snow is called névé. Névé has a density exceeding 500 kilograms per cubic meter. If the névé survives the ablation that occurs during the summer months it is called firn. When this process happens year after year, a number of layers of firn can accumulate. Accumulation then causes a further increase in density, modifying the firn into glacier ice, as the lower layers of firn are compressed by the weight of the layers above. On average, the transformation of névé into glacial ice may take 25 to 100 years."
883519
There is not really something like a critical point for glaciers. As long as temperatures are rising and are resulting in a negative mass balance the glaciers will keep on melting. But that's not irreversible - thinking rather in "geological" time scales, decades or hundreds or thousands of years. As soon as the mass balance gets positive (due to temperature and/OR more precipitation) glaciers will grow again.\n\nThinking e.g. of a huge volcanic eruption or a comet / asteroid hitting the earth and blowing dust into the atmosphere blocking sun light, that might lead to a global "freezing", maybe even to a next ice age.