RYAN ZERNACH

Senior AI Systems Engineer

Ryan_Zernach_2025_Senior_AI_Systems_Engineer_Remote_United_States

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🧊 Global Glaciers: Where on Earth are They Located?

Summary

Where are the largest glaciers located on Earth? At what elevation are the globe's glaciers? I used a combination of a mapping library and a GIF-creator library to showcase the answers to these two questions!

Tech Stack

Basemap (Mapping Library), imageio (GIF creator library), Numpy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, Photoshop, Itertools, Libgeo

Team

Solo Project

Timeline

Five Days

If you thought Antarctica was the world's largest glacier, then guess again! You may be surprised to learn that Antarctica isn't even a glacier in the first place: it's an ice sheet — and so is Greenland. So what's the difference between a glacier and an ice sheet?

🧊 Global Glaciers: Where on Earth are They Located?
NOTE: Illustration Courtesy of University of California

As explained in the illustration above, a glacier resides on land and an ice sheet floats atop the ocean's surface (just like an ice cube floats in your favorite beverage). And an iceburg? Well, those are just miniaturized ice sheets. So where across Earth's landmasses are the actual glaciers located? I have yet to see one in person!

🧊 Global Glaciers: Where on Earth are They Located?
NOTE: These are the locations of 130,000+ glaciers. Therefore, the top 1% are the locations of ~1,300 (pink) glaciers and the other 99% are the locations of ~128,700 (blue) glaciers.

Prior to analysis, I never imagined glaciers existing anywhere except perhaps the north and south poles — the Arctic and the Antarctic. What other glacial factors may affect where a glacier resides on Earth?

🧊 Global Glaciers: Where on Earth are They Located?
NOTE: Of the 130,000+ glaciers within this dataset, ~30% are (green) glaciers between 45°S-45°N, and ~70% are (yellow) glaciers that are either below 45°S or above 45°N.

Okay, great! The data has been split into green glaciers and yellow glaciers. Let's take a look at the overall altitudes of these two subsets of data:

🧊 Global Glaciers: Where on Earth are They Located?
NOTE: The average elevation of the green subset of data is nearly two-and-a-half times the average elevation of the yellow subset of data.

Conclusion

If you ever plan to go explore Earth's natural, frozen beauties, then be prepared to trek to the most northern reaches, the most southern stretches, or the highest of altitudes — regardless, dress warmly!