What percentage of a glacier is under-water?

Question

ok, yeah, iceburgs

Answer 1

Do you mean glacier or iceburg? All the glaciers I've ever seen were on land masses. As to iceburgs, I don't know the percentage, but I do know that most of the bulk is underwater. Hence the saying the "tip of the iceburg".

Answer 2

The question does not make sense for glaciers in general. Many are on land, while others terminate in the sea. For those that terminate in the sea, the percent would depend on how long the glacier is and each value would be distinct and basically meaningless.

But for an iceburg, you can calculate the percentage from the density of ice (icebergs are typically fresh water with small abouts of contaminates) and the density of the surrounding sea water.

Let Vu be the underwater volume and Va be the above water volume. Let V be the total volume of the iceburg and let it equal 1.
Let Di be iceburg density and Ds be sea water density.

Di=0.92 g/ml
Ds=1.027 g/ml

Vu*Ds = (Vu + Va)* Di :note that Vu+Va = V = 1

Vu= Di/Ds

Percent under water = 100*Di/Ds = 89.5 %

All this assumes uniform density. Icebergs are not entirely uniform. The last link says somewhere between 7/8 (87.5%) and 9/10 (90%) depending on the snow pack.

Answer 3

About 75% usually... but, the actual percentage will depend on the salinity and temperature of the water. Warmer water will tend to dissolve more salt, which actually RAISES the glacier slightly higher.

Answer 4

I always heard that 3/4 of glaciers are under water.

Answer 5

There are tidewater glaciers that flow into the sea

Answer 6

Do you mean icebergs? Glaciers are usually on land.

Answer 7

1/9 is above water.

Answer 8

80%