Largest individual glacier

The world’s largest individual glacier is the Seller Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula which was measured at 7,018 km2 (2,710 sq mi) in 2002. This category of glaciers is distinct from glacier complexes, where a number of contiguous glaciers are joined together and which typically cover much larger areas.

The largest contiguous glacier is the Antarctic Ice Sheet which covers an area of 13,924,000 km2 (5,376,100 sq mi) and almost 2,000 times larger than the Seller Glacier.

Due to global warming, glaciers are melting at an increasing rate and contributing to sea-level rise. This could potentially disrupt the lives of hundreds of millions of people who live in coastal areas or rely on their meltwater for human activities.