Imagine walking on a giant river made of ice that is thousands of years old. That’s the Athabasca Glacier in Canada. It is one of the coolest (literally!) places you can visit in the Canadian Rockies. Let’s take a closer look at this frozen wonder!
A glacier is like a frozen river that moves very, very slowly. The Athabasca Glacier is part of the Columbia Icefield, one of the largest icefields in North America. The icefield stretches about 125 square miles through the mountains. Scientists have measured the thickness of the ice to be up to 1,198 feet deep.
The Athabasca Glacier is over 230,000 years old! It started to form during the last Ice Age. Snowfall over time has squeezed together to form a giant sheet of ice. Even though it looks still, the glacier is moving. It slides downhill very slowly, a few inches each year. But the glacier is also shrinking. Scientists say it is getting smaller because the Earth is warming up.
You can visit the Athabasca Glacier and even walk on it with a tour guide. Special buses with enormous wheels take visitors right onto the ice. Guides talk about how glaciers work and why they’re important. They even encourage you to fill up your water bottle with the melting ice!
Glaciers like the Athabasca Glacier are important because they provide fresh water for rivers, plants, and animals. Glaciers are also a record of Earth’s history, holding clues about what the planet was like long ago.
What Do You Think? Why do you think scientists are concerned about glaciers shrinking?
Photo Credit: Susan Flurry
