Polar ice cap

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/polar-ice-cap

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the geographic distribution?High-latitude polar regions of planets, dwarf planets, and natural satellites
2. What is the compositional variability?Earth: Primarily water ice. Mars: Water ice and solid carbon dioxide
3. Why do polar ice caps stay cold?The poles get less direct sunlight because of the planet's tilt, so they stay very cold and let ice build up.
4. How big can a polar ice cap be?A polar ice cap is less than 50,000 square kilometers. Bigger ones are called ice sheets.

Cryosphere: The parts of the Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice.
Insolation: The amount of solar radiation received per unit area of a surface.
Paleoclimatology: The study of past climates, often using proxy data such as ice cores or tree rings.