Within Spitsbergen, the surroundings of Longyearbyen enjoy a rather dry and relatively mild climate and show therefore only moderate degree of glaciation. Only 18 % of the land area is here covered by glaciers. Most of the glaciers are relatively small, isolated valley glaciers. Glaciers move by different mechanisms: The ice mass can slide downslopes as a whole block. This works only if the glacier is „warm“, which means that the temperature is at the pressure melting point near 0°C. Then, there is a thin water layer between the ice
Glacier
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