The Wonder Book of Knowledge: The Marvels of Modern Industry and Invention, the Interesting Stories of Common Things, the Mysterious Processes of Nature Simply Explained
History
The Wonder Book of Knowledge: The Marvels of Modern Industry and Invention, the Interesting Stories of Common Things, the Mysterious Processes of Nature Simply Explained
Industrial arts -- History
Away up in the high valleys formed among the peaks of the tallest
mountain ranges of both the Rocky Mountains and the mountains of Alaska,
as well as those in Switzerland and European countries, the snow freezes
into great solid masses because of the intense cold, and is forced by
its own pressure into vast fields and mountains of ice. This ice is not
like that produced by the freezing of water, but resembles more a very
hard, solid form of snow, being composed of thin layers filled with air
bubbles and more brittle and less transparent than the ice we are
accustomed to see. Glaciers exist in all zones in which mountains rise
above the snow-line, that is, the height where it is so cold that there
is always snow.
We all know that if we press two pieces of ordinary ice together each
piece will melt at the place where it touches the other and just in that
same way the pressure of the ice above them causes glaciers to be
continually moving downward, frequently reaching the borders of
cultivation even. As they descend they also experience a gradual
diminution from the action of the sun and rain, and from the heat of the
earth. Investigation has shown that they move very much like a river,
the middle and upper parts faster than the sides and bottom, similar to
the way in which a mass of thick mortar or a quantity of pitch flows
down an inclined trough. The rate at which a glacier moves generally
varies from eighteen to twenty-four inches in a day.
The Glacier National Park is the latest addition to the series of great
natural attractions which the United States Government has been
acquiring for years. It lies in Northern Montana, between the Canadian
border and the line of the Great Northern Railroad, and contains about a
million acres of natural wonders, ranging from verdant valleys and
wooded heights to glacial peaks. There are numerous glaciers and
mountain lakes and the locality presents many examples of sublime
scenery. The City of Tacoma, Washington, is situated in the valley below
Mt. Rainier and commands a wonderful view of that mountain, on which
there is situated one of the largest glacial systems in the world
radiating from any single peak.
One of the most famous glaciers of the Alps is the Mer de Glace,
belonging to Mont Blanc, in the valley of Chamouni, about fifty-seven
hundred feet above the level of the sea. Those of the Andes and the
Southern Alps of New Zealand are conspicuous, and they abound in Norway,
Iceland and Spitzbergen, but it is more especially in the chain of Monte
Rosa that the phenomena of glaciers are exhibited in their greatest
wonder, as also in their most interesting phases from a scientific point
of view.
How Large are Molecules?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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