how come glaciers float?

Question

i was lookin through a text book and then i saw a glacier by its self floating

Answer 1

Ice weighs less than water. The molecular structure of ice has a hole in each ice formation, and gives it a lower density, and hence it floats in water.

Answer 2

Actually its icebergs--pieces of glaciers that have broken off and fallen into the ocean.

They are made of ice--and float for the same reason an ice cube floats in a glass of water--ice is a little less dense than water.

Answer 3

A glacier floating by itself is not technically a glacier, its an iceberg.
The reason why icebergs float is because the molecular density of ice is less than that of water- fresh or salt - and therefore ice has what is called buoyancy.

Answer 4

Glaciers are basically just huge chunks of ice, and ice is less dense than water, so they float. It's the same principle as a piece of ice floating in a glass of ice water.

Answer 5

When water freezes into ice (or when snow gets compacted into ice and becomes glaciers, which later break off to form icebergs) it expands slightly, trapping air inside.

This means that the ice is less dense than the water it is floating in.

Things that are less dense than water will float in water. That is what buoyancy is.

Answer 6

Glaciers actually have a mass of ice that floats underneath the exposed ice that is much larger than part of the glacier that you see.

Answer 7

They don't float entirety just the tops do, this is because the ocean is vast and has alot of displacement, in other words buoyancy is affecting the glacier to float...it also floats on the center of its own gravity.

Answer 8

Water is the only substance that expands when it freezes, so ice floats on water. You can see this easily whenever you drink a drink with ice cubes in it. You will notice than only a small part of the ice cube sticks above the surface of the drink, and the same is true of ice burgs. Most of the ice burg is under water.

Answer 9

Most of these answers are on the right track. Solid water (ice) is less dense than liquid water due the fact that the hydrogen bonding in liquid water produces shorter nuclear radii (or distance from nucleus of one water molecule to another water molecule) than in ice. Ths phase change that occurs during freezing does not allow the molecules to stay as close to each other, so the molecules move slightly away from each other to the freezing to occur.

Answer 10

Glaciers are fresh water. Fresh water freezes at 32 degrees F.

Oceans are salt water and freeze much lower than 32 degrees.

Fresh water and frozen fresh water (ice) are lighter than salt water.

Frozen fresh water (ice) is lighter than water. That's why ice cubes in a glass float.