Glacier formation and behaviour


In the following we are going to look into how a glacier is formed and how it behaves. A glacier is formed when snow falling during winter does not melt away during summer.


Summer snow

A snow drift in the mountains that has not melted completely away in summer time.

To form a glacier three preconditions are needed:

  1. It has to snow during winter
  2. It has to be so cold during summer that the snow will not melt away completely
  3. The summers have to be cold for many successive years