Day 3: Worlds third largest ice cap

Svalbard houses the world's third largest ice cap-which is land that is covered by glaciers that make one giant continuous ice cap!  It is 100 miles long and 100 miles wide.  It is called Nordaustland, and represents one of the many types of solid water we have seen here.

Glaciers are slow moving rivers that have been calving and receding due to melting from the rise of air temperatures and other varied effects from climate change.   This is very apparent in Svalbard.   As we travel along the shores, we see areas that used to have glaciers, but as they have disappeared, the ground underneath them is exposed.  Futhermore, as the ice leaves, the weight force from the glacier goes to zero.  Therefore, the land rebounds upward as the stress from the glacier is gone.  This process that has happened quite rapidly (on a geologic timescale) is called the isostatic rebound.   The result is that the beaches can become hills and show the different levels of rebound.