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Wordcount: 338
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major glacial properties and how they affect glacial flow
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The thickness of glacial ice has direct influences on how a glacier flows. While thickness effects both continental and valley glaciers, it has a more profound effect on the first. Simply, as pressure increases with thickness the melting temperature is lowered, thus ice melts at points where pressure is greatest, at the base of the glacier. As water accumulates, it provides a lubricating film that allows gravity to more easily effect movement of the glacier ice, producing the phenomena known as basal slip. In addition to melt water helping to initiate flow, the weight of the glacier itself helps to determine the rate at which it moves. As a glacier gains thickness, and thus mass, gravity can more easily act upon the ice, pulling it to
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