A glacier is like a giant, slow-moving river made entirely of ice. Imagine if you had a big scoop of ice cream that never melted and kept slowly sliding down a hill. That’s kind of how a glacier works! Glaciers form in places where it’s so cold that the snow doesn’t melt completely. Over many, many years, the snow piles up and squishes together to become solid ice. This ice is so heavy that it starts to slide down the mountains, very slowly.
Think of a glacier as a giant freezer that keeps things super cold. Inside this freezer, there are layers and layers of ice that have been around for a very long time, sometimes even longer than the oldest trees! As the glacier moves, it picks up rocks and dirt, just like when you make a snowball and it gets bigger and bigger. These rocks and dirt help the glacier carve out valleys and shape the land.
Imagine a super slow bulldozer made of ice. As it moves, it pushes everything in its path. Because glaciers are so big and strong, they can change the shape of entire mountains and create beautiful landscapes. Even though they move super slowly, glaciers are very important because they hold a lot of the Earth’s fresh water and help keep our planet cool.