Solved cryptogram
A glacier is not a parked block of ice. It creeps downhill under its own weight all year.
Earth Science Facts, sourced to National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 70 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
Ice under enough pressure deforms rather than shattering, so the bulk of a glacier flows like extremely stiff treacle while the brittle top layer cracks into crevasses over the moving mass beneath. Meltwater at the base can let the whole thing slide as well. That motion is what carves a valley into a U shape, hauls boulders many kilometers from their parent rock, and leaves them stranded when the ice retreats.
The claim comes from National Snow and Ice Data Center.
- SourceNational Snow and Ice Data Center
- CollectionEarth Science Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length70 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- UCAR Center for Science Educationmedium, 71 letters
- National Weather Servicehard, 74 letters
- National Snow and Ice Data Centerhard, 74 letters
- NASAeasy, 69 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
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- NOAAmedium, 72 letters
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