1 Continental glaciers, also called ice sheets, cover large amounts of land in the Earth’s polar regions. 2  The largest ice sheets are located in Antarctica. 3  In the Arctic region, an ice sheet covers Greenland and there is an ice sheet in Iceland. Alpine glaciers are glaciers formed in the mountains. Continental glaciers are formed during ice ages and are large, expanses of ice. The high altitude or the troposphere and … the constant snow that is packed together and turned to ice is what forms the alpine glaciers high The two types of glaciers are Valley or Alpine glaciers Continental glaciers. The difference between them is where they flow. Valley glaciers flow in mountain valleys from high to low elevations. Continental glaciers or ice sheets flow over vast unconfined land areas. Valley glaciers are present at high altitude in mountain valleys of Alaska, the Italian Alps and New Zealand. Alpine Glacier-Most glaciers that form in a mountain are known as alpine glaciers. There are several subtypes of alpine glaciers: 1  Cirque: a cirque is a bowl shaped hollow at the head of a valley. 2  Within a cirque lies a snowfield, the place where snow accumulates to form a cirque glacier. 3  Valley: any glacier that resides in an area eroded by stream action is called a valley glacier. Continental glaciers are continuous masses of ice that are much larger than alpine glaciers. Small continental glaciers are called ice fields. Big continental glaciers are called ice sheets. Greenland and Antarctica are almost entirely covered with ice sheets that are up to 3500 m (11 500 ft) thick. Domed and roughly circular ice caps are bigger than ice fields but smaller than
http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/polar/cryosphere_glacier1.html http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_alpine_valley_glaciers_and_continental_ice_sheets http://www.personal.kent.edu/~sclement/dynamics/glaciers/glaciers.htm http://geography.about.com/od/geographyintern/a/glaciers.htm http://www.onegeology.org/eXtra/kids/earthProcesses/continentalGlaciers.html
What are the significant differences between continental ice caps and alpine glaciers”?