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Glacier caves, or ice caves, form inside a glacier as water enters through cracks and crevices in the ice. This water slowly melts and erodes the ice within the glacier, enlarging the cracks, sometimes creating long tunnels leading right down to its base. |
Sometimes, melting at the margin of a glacier may cause small caves to form within the ice, between the ice and the bedrock, or between the ice and the sediment beneath it. Ice caves can also form where water exits from beneath the glacier or where the ice flows over a large bump its bed.
Glacier ice caves are cold, with icy water dripping from their roofs. Sometimes, rocks and debris that the glacier has picked up melt out and drop into the caves. People interested in exploring ice caves should wear helmets, as they would in other kinds of caves.
Glacier Ice Caves are sometimes referred to as “ice caves”, but the term ice caves is more commonly used for caves in rock which contain ice year-round.
Credit: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Picture Credit : Google
