文勇ibt黄金阅读-冰川形成.docxVIP

智课网TOEFL备考资料文勇ibt黄金阅读:冰川的形成 摘要： 刘文勇新托福黄金阅读最新版文本及答案，高清PDF格式支持免费下载，一共71篇，包括原刘文勇黄金阅读29篇，下面是文勇ibt黄金阅读:冰川的形成，希望对大家备考托福阅读考试有所帮助。  文勇ibt黄金阅读:Glacier Formation 冰川的形成  Glaciers are slowly moving masses of ice that have accumulated on land in areas where more snowfalls during a year than melts. Snow falls as hexagonal crystals, but once on the ground, snow is soon transformed into a compacted mass of smaller, rounded grains. As the air space around them is lessened by compaction and melting, the grains become denser. With further melting, refreezing, and increased weight from newer snowfall above, the snow reaches a granular recrystallized stage intermediate between flakes and ice known as firn. With additional time, pressure, and refrozen meltwater from above, the small firn granules become larger, interlocked crystals of blue glacial ice. When the ice is thick enough, usually over 30 meters, the weight of the snow and firn will cause the ice crystals toward the bottom to become plastic and to flow outward or downward from the area of snow accumulation.  Glaciers are open systems, with snow as the systems input and meltwater as the system’s main output. The glacial system is governed by two basic climatic variables: precipitation and temperature. For a glacier to grow or maintain its mass, there must be sufficient snowfall to match or exceed the annual loss through melting, evaporation, and calving, which occurs when the glacier loses solid chunks as icebergs to the sea or to large lakes. If summer temperatures are high for too long, then all the snowfall from the previous winter will melt. Surplus snowfall is essential for a glacier to develop. A surplus allows snow to accumulate and for the pressure of snow accumulated over the years to transform buried snow into glacial ice with a depth great enough for the ice to flow. Glaciers are sometimes classified by temperature as faster-flowing temperate glaciers or as slower-flowing polar glaciers.