Jamesty
Glaciers, which are enormous rivers of ice, are responsible for virtually 70 percent of the freshwater on the planet and have been shaping landscapes for millennia. These icy giants are shrinking as a result of the acceleration of climate change, which makes it more important than ever before to realize and appreciate their significance. Here are the ten glaciers that are considered to be the largest in the world in the year 2025. These glaciers are primarily measured by area and length, and they include both tidewater and continental glaciers.
List Of Top 10 Largest Glaciers In The World 2025
1. Seller Glacier
Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula, has the prominent Seller Glacier. This west-northwesterly flow descends from the plateau into the Stange Ice Stream. This glacier affects the region’s ice dynamics, which have changed significantly in recent decades. The Antarctic Peninsula, where Seller Glacier is, is one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth, raising concerns about its ice shelves and glaciers. To understand how glaciers like Seller respond to climate change and affect global sea levels, researchers monitor their flow rates and mass balance. The United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) named “Seller Glacier” in 1986 to honor Palmer Station hospital corpsman Kenneth Seller.
2. Thurston Glacier
Antarctica’s Thurston Glacier is on Thurston Island off Ellsworth Land. This massive glacier flows southwest from Thurston Island’s central dome into Peacock Sound. Thurston Island’s glaciers affect the regional ice budget. The Thurston Glacier, like many West Antarctic glaciers, is affected by atmospheric and oceanic warming. Increased ocean temperatures can melt and calve outlet glaciers that terminate in the sea. Studies of glaciers on isolated islands like Thurston help explain Antarctic ice sheet behavior, especially their oceanic interactions. The glacier is named after Thurston Island, named for New York textile manufacturer Walter N. Thurston, who funded the 1933–35 Byrd Antarctic Expedition.
3. Alexander Island Glacier No. 1
Alexander Island, Antarctica’s largest island west of the Antarctic Peninsula, is glaciated. Due to its size and extensive ice cover, research and mapping often refer to individual ice masses. “Alexander Island Glacier No. 1” may be a specific, unnamed or uncodified glacier on Alexander Island being studied or identified. An exact location or unique characteristics are hard to pinpoint without more specific geographical coordinates or a formal name. Alexander Island’s glaciers are outlet glaciers that flow into the Larsen Ice Shelf or George VI Sound from the island’s interior ice cap. These glaciers are important for understanding ice dynamics in a region that has seen significant ice shelf collapse and glacier retreat in recent decades, especially on the eastern side of the island.
4. Alexander Island Glacier No. 2
Like “Alexander Island Glacier No. 1,” “Alexander Island Glacier No. 2” would refer to another unnamed or uncodified glacier on the island. Since the island is huge and mostly ice, many glaciers drain its interior. These “numbered” designations are often used in scientific literature or mapping projects to distinguish glacial features without formal names or to focus on a specific set of glaciers within a larger glaciated area. Alexander Island Glacier No. 2 is an outlet glacier that flows through mountainous terrain and is strongly influenced by regional climate patterns and the stability of the ice shelves it feeds into. Such glaciers help researchers understand Antarctic ice sheet mass balance and climate change.
5. Mercator Ice Piedmont
The east coast of Alexander Island, Antarctica, has the vast Mercator Ice Piedmont. Ice piedmonts are glaciers that form a broad, skirt-like expanse of ice at the foot of mountains, often spreading out onto a coastal plain or into the sea. The Mercator Ice Piedmont covers a large part of the eastern coast between the Sibelius and Euterpe Glaciers. It indicates a lot of ice draining from Alexander Island’s higher elevations. Ice piedmonts like Mercator are vital land-ocean interfaces. The Alexander Island ice cap’s mass balance depends on their stability and ice discharge rate. Monitoring the Mercator Ice Piedmont reveals regional glacial responses to warming and sea ice changes. UKAPC named the piedmont after Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1977 after the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) mapped it in 1973-77.
6. Malaspina-Seward Glacier
Southeastern Alaska’s massive piedmont glacier system is the Malaspina-Seward Glacier. Large glaciers from the St. Elias Mountains, including the Agassiz and Seward Glaciers, form it. Its massive size and fan-shaped lobate shape on the coastal plain make the Malaspina Glacier famous. The largest piedmont glacier in North America. One of the world’s largest non-polar icefields, the Bagley Icefield, includes the Malaspina-Seward system. Its complex flow patterns, meltwater channels, and sediment deposition make this glacier system dynamic. It is ideal for studying glacial geomorphology, proglacial environments, and climate change on large ice masses. Spanish explorer Alessandro Malaspina named the glacier in 1792. Thomas C. Mendenhall named the Seward Glacier in 1888 for former Secretary of State William H. Seward.
7. Wykeham Glacier South
The “Wykeham Glacier South” may be a southern arm of Wykeham. Locating it without more geographic context is difficult. Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula, has a large Wykeham Glacier. If this glacier is the intended one, Wykeham Glacier South would flow southerly or be on the southern flank of a larger glacial system. Climate change causes Antarctic Peninsula glaciers to retreat and thin rapidly. Studying sections like “Wykeham Glacier South” would allow for more detailed analysis of localized ice dynamics, crevasse patterns, and meltwater runoff, which are essential to understanding glacial system health and behavior. Sea-level rise predictions improve with such detailed observations. The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UKAPC) named the Graham Land Wykeham Glacier in 1960 after William Wykeham, founder of Winchester College and New College, Oxford.
8. Bering Glacier
The largest North American glacier is the Bering Glacier in southeastern Alaska. From the Chugach Mountains, it flows east as a massive piedmont lobe to Vitus Lake, which is connected to the Gulf of Alaska. Due to its size, dynamic behavior, and climate change response, the Bering Glacier is a unique glaciological laboratory. One of the fastest-receding glaciers in the world. The glacier’s retreat has created large proglacial lakes and changed the landscape. Researchers study its mass balance, flow velocities, terminus position, and meltwater effects on ecosystems and sea levels. The Bering Glacier is a key indicator of regional climate change and global glacio-eustatic contributions. The glacier was named after Vitus Bering by W.H. Dall in 1883.
9. Hubbard Glacier
The massive Hubbard Glacier at the head of Yakutat Bay and Disenchantment Bay in southeastern Alaska is a tidewater glacier. The longest tidewater glacier in North America, it flows 76 miles (122 km) from Mount Logan in the Yukon to the sea. The Hubbard Glacier’s surge-type behavior and tendency to advance make it unique and fascinating. Many Alaskan glaciers are rapidly retreating. Sometimes the Hubbard Glacier surges forward, pushing massive amounts of ice into the bay and closing Russell Fjord, creating a freshwater lake. They can have serious ecological and hydrological effects. It advances but thins at its top, indicating a complex climate change response. The Hubbard Glacier is well-studied and sheds light on large tidewater glaciers and their marine environment. The first National Geographic Society president, Gardiner G. Hubbard, inspired its 1890 name.
10. South Dome Glacier on the Northern Slope of Barnes Ice Cap
The Barnes Ice Cap is prominent on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is part of the Laurentide Ice Sheet that covered North America. The Barnes Ice Cap’s southern dome’s northern slope is home to the “South Dome Glacier on the Northern Slope of Barnes Ice Cap”. Barnes Ice Cap has two domes, northern and southern. Ice flows radially from these domes. Although small compared to ice sheet outlet glaciers, a glacier on the northern slope of the southern dome is important for understanding relict ice cap dynamics. These glaciers’ mass balance, Arctic warming response, and climate record-keeping are studied. The Barnes Ice Cap has been shrinking for decades, so studies of its glacial components, like the South Dome Glacier, are essential for predicting its future and its contribution to global sea levels.
