So, how did the climatologist spot the world’s smallest glacier? Good ice sight! We hear the groans and we don’t blame you a bit. Just a little ice-breaker… every pun intended.

Small is not what first comes to mind when considering glaciers, but whether they are a few hundred meters across, or as is the case with the Lambert Glacier in Antarctica which, at 250 miles long and 60 miles wide, is the world’s largest, there is one quality that makes a glacier a glacier as opposed to just a big hunk of ice. Perpetuality.

Glaciers form where the mass of accumulated snow and ice exceeds the rates of erosion, vaporizing, chipping, and melting. Over time the snow is compacted to very dense ethereal blue ice. The density and lack of air due to compression cause all colors but blue to be absorbed, but depending on debris and melt patterns, glaciers can form in various color patterns. One of the most dramatic types is the so-called zebra glacier with alternating black and white vertical stripes.

Seventy-five percent of the world’s fresh water supply is locked up in these massive rivers of ice. Only the world’s oceans contain more total water. Excepting Australia, glaciers occur in mountain ranges all over the world - even in the tropics. We thaw them out at our peril. If the Lambert Glacier were to melt, sea level worldwide would rise 210 feet. Most of the world would become Venice and Venice would become Atlantis and all us “coasters” would wind up looking for beach property in Lebanon, Kansas.

Everything about a glacier is slow, or should be. That’s how we want it. A glacial pace if you will. But lately this process is going a little faster than what is to be desired. Recently an 11 square mile chunk of the Petermann Glacier in Greenland broke off. We’re talking an ice cube over half the size of Manhattan. That’s a big, foreboding splash.

However, in ideal conditions a glacier will maintain itself, accumulation of ice always outpacing ablation, and their slow movement through mountain valleys and over vast artic plains has been, with wind and water, among the most influential forces in shaping the surface of Earth as we know it.

So the next time you stoop to drink from that cool mountain stream or plunk a couple of ice cubes into your scotch, remember what a slow, arduous journey those molecules of H2O have made to quench your thirst, and relish the experience.

For clips of glaciers, slip-sliding along in cool, crisp High Definition, click here.