A glacier (pronounced or ) is a large persistent body of ice. Originating on land, a glacier flows slowly due to stresses induced by its weight. The crevasses and other distinguishing features of a glacier are due to its flow. Another consequence of glacier flow is the transport of rock and debris abraded from its substrate and resultant landforms like cirques and moraines. A glacier forms in a location where the accumulation of snow and sleet exceeds the amount of snow that melts. Over many years, often decades or centuries, a glacier will eventually form as the snow compacts and turns to ice. A glacier is distinct from sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.

The word ''glacier'' comes from French. It is derived from the Vulgar Latin ''*glacia'' and ultimately from Latin ''glacies'' meaning ''ice''. The processes and features caused by glaciers and related to them are referred to as glacial. The process of glacier establishment, growth and flow is called glaciation. The corresponding area of study is called glaciology. Glaciers are important components of the global cryosphere.

On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in the polar regions, but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges of every continent except Australia. In the tropics, glaciers occur only on high mountains.

Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth. Many glaciers store water during one season and release it later as meltwater, a water source that is especially important for plants, animals and human uses when other sources may be scant.

Because glacial mass is affected by long-term climate changes, e.g., precipitation, mean temperature, and cloud cover, glacial mass changes are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change and are a major source of variations in sea level.

Types of glaciers

Glaciers are categorized in many ways including by their morphology, thermal characteristics or their behavior. Alpine glaciers form on the crests and slopes of mountains and are also known as "mountain glaciers", "niche glaciers", or "cirque glaciers". An alpine glacier that fills a valley is sometimes called a valley glacier. Larger glaciers that cover an entire mountain, mountain range, or volcano are known as an ice cap or ice field, such as the Juneau Icefield. Ice caps feed outlet glaciers, tongues of ice that extend into valleys below far from the margins of the larger ice masses.

The largest glacial bodies, ice sheets or continental glaciers, cover more than 50,000 km² (20,000 mile²). Several kilometers deep, they obscure the underlying topography. Only nunataks protrude from the surface. The only extant ice sheets are the two that cover most of Antarctica and Greenland. These regions contain vast quantities of fresh water. The volume of ice is so large that if the Greenland ice sheet melted, it would cause sea levels to rise six meters (20 ft) all around the world. If the Antarctic ice sheet melted, sea levels would rise up to 65 meters (210 ft). Ice shelves are areas of floating ice, commonly located at the margin of an ice sheet. As a result they are thinner and have limited slopes and reduced velocities. Ice streams are fast-moving sections of an ice sheet. They can be several hundred kilometers long. Ice streams have narrow margins and on either side ice flow is usually an order of magnitude less. In Antarctica, many ice streams drain into large ice shelves. However, some drain directly into the sea, often with an ice tongue, like Mertz Glacier. In Greenland and Antarctica ice streams ending at the sea are often referred to as tidewater glaciers or outlet glaciers, such as Jakobshavn Isbræ ().

Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that terminate in the sea. As the ice reaches the sea pieces break off, or ''calve'', forming icebergs. Most tidewater glaciers calve above sea level, which often results in a tremendous splash as the iceberg strikes the water. If the water is deep, glaciers can calve underwater, causing the iceberg to suddenly leap up out of the water. The Hubbard Glacier is the longest tidewater glacier in Alaska and has a calving face over 10 km (6 mi) long. Yakutat Bay and Glacier Bay are both popular with cruise ship passengers because of the huge glaciers descending hundreds of feet to the water. This glacier type undergoes centuries-long cycles of advance and retreat that are much less affected by the climate changes currently causing the retreat of most other glaciers. Most tidewater glaciers are outlet glaciers of ice caps and ice fields.

In terms of thermal characteristics, a ''temperate'' glacier is at melting point throughout the year, from its surface to its base. The ice of a ''polar'' glacier is always below freezing point from the surface to its base, although the surface snowpack may experience seasonal melting. A ''sub-polar'' glacier has both temperate and polar ice, depending on the depth beneath the surface and position along the length of the glacier.

Formation

Glaciers form where the accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation. As the snow and ice thicken, they reach a point where they begin to move, due to a combination of the surface slope and the pressure of the overlying snow and ice. On steeper slopes this can occur with as little as 15 m (50 ft) of snow-ice. The snow which forms temperate glaciers is subject to repeated freezing and thawing, which changes it into a form of granular ice called firn. Under the pressure of the layers of ice and snow above it, this granular ice fuses into denser and denser firn. Over a period of years, layers of firn undergo further compaction and become glacial ice. Glacier ice has a slightly reduced density from ice formed from the direct freezing of water. The air between snowflakes becomes trapped and creates air bubbles between the ice crystals.

The distinctive blue tint of glacial ice is often wrongly attributed to Rayleigh scattering due to bubbles in the ice. The blue color is actually created for the same reason that water is blue, that is, its slight absorption of red light due to an overtone of the infrared OH stretching mode of the water molecule.

Anatomy

The location where a glacier originates is referred to as the "glacier head". A glacier terminates at the "glacier foot", or terminus. Glaciers are broken into zones based on surface snowpack and melt conditions. The ablation zone is the region where there is a net loss in glacier mass. The equilibrium line separates the ablation zone and the accumulation zone. At this altitude, the amount of new snow gained by accumulation is equal to the amount of ice lost through ablation. The accumulation zone is the region where snowpack or superimposed ice accumulation persists.

A further zonation of the accumulation zone distinguishes the melt conditions that exist.

The dry snow zone is a region where no melt occurs, even in the summer, and the snowpack remains dry.

The percolation zone is an area with some surface melt, causing meltwater to percolate into the snowpack. This zone is often marked by refrozen ice lenses, glands, and layers. The snowpack also never reaches melting point.

Near the equilibrium line on some glaciers, a superimposed ice zone develops. This zone is where meltwater refreezes as a cold layer in the glacier, forming a continuous mass of ice.

The wet snow zone is the region where all of the snow deposited since the end of the previous summer has been raised to 0 °C.

The upper part of a glacier that receives most of the snowfall is called the ''accumulation zone''. In general, the glacier accumulation zone accounts for 60-70% of the glacier's surface area, more if the glacier calves icebergs. The depth of ice in the accumulation zone exerts a downward force sufficient to cause deep erosion of the rock in this area. After the glacier is gone, its force often leaves a bowl or amphitheater-shaped isostatic depression ranging from large lake basins, such as the Great Lakes or Finger Lakes, to smaller mountain basins, known as ''cirques''.

The "health" of a glacier is usually assessed by determining the glacier mass balance or observing terminus behavior. Healthy glaciers have large accumulation zones, more than 60% of their area snowcovered at the end of the melt season, and a terminus with vigorous flow.

Following the Little Ice Age, around 1850, the glaciers of the Earth have retreated substantially through the 1940s (see Retreat of glaciers since 1850). A slight cooling led to the advance of many alpine glaciers from 1950-1985. However, since 1985 glacier retreat and mass balance loss has become increasingly ubiquitous and large.

Motion

Glaciers move, or flow, downhill due to the internal deformation of ice and gravity. Ice behaves like an easily breaking solid until its thickness exceeds about 50 meters (160 ft). The pressure on ice deeper than that depth causes plastic flow. At the molecular level, ice consists of stacked layers of molecules with relatively weak bonds between the layers. When the stress of the layer above exceeds the inter-layer binding strength, it moves faster than the layer below.

Another type of movement is through basal sliding. In this process, the glacier slides over the terrain on which it sits, lubricated by the presence of liquid water. As the pressure increases toward the base of the glacier, the melting point of water decreases, and the ice melts. Friction between ice and rock and geothermal heat from the Earth's interior also contribute to melting. This type of movement is dominant in temperate, or warm-based glaciers. The geothermal heat flux becomes more important the thicker a glacier becomes.

The rate of movement is dependent on the underlying slope, amongst many other factors.

Fracture zone and cracks

The top 50 meters of the glacier, being under less pressure, are more rigid; this section is known as the ''fracture zone'', and mostly moves as a single unit, over the plastic-like flow of the lower section. When the glacier moves through irregular terrain, cracks up to 50 meters deep form in the fracture zone. The lower layers of glacial ice flow and deform plastically under the pressure, allowing the glacier as a whole to move slowly like a viscous fluid. Glaciers flow downslope, usually this reflects the slope of their base, but it may reflect the surface slope instead. Thus, a glacier can flow rises in terrain at their base. The upper layers of glaciers are more brittle, and often form deep cracks known as crevasses. The presence of crevasses is a sure sign of a glacier. Moving ice-snow of a glacier is often separated from a mountain side or snow-ice that is stationary and clinging to that mountain side by a ''bergshrund''. This looks like a crevasse but is at the margin of the glacier and is a singular feature.

Crevasses form due to differences in glacier velocity. As the parts move at different speeds and directions, shear forces cause the two sections to break apart, opening the crack of a crevasse all along the disconnecting faces. Hence, the distance between the two separated parts, while touching and rubbing deep down, frequently widens significantly towards the surface layers, many times creating a wide chasm. Crevasses seldom are more than deep but in some cases can be or even deeper. Beneath this point, the plastic deformation of the ice under pressure is too great for the differential motion to generate cracks. Transverse crevasses are transverse to flow, as a glacier accelerates where the slope steepens. Longitudinal crevasses form semi-parallel to flow where a glacier expands laterally. Marginal crevasses form from the edge of the glacier, due to the reduction in speed caused by friction of the valley walls. Marginal crevasses are usually largely transverse to flow.

Crevasses make travel over glaciers hazardous. Subsequent heavy snow may form fragile snow bridges, increasing the danger by hiding the presence of crevasses at the surface. Below the equilibrium line, glacier meltwater is concentrated in stream channels. The meltwater can pool in a proglacial lake, a lake on top of the glacier, or can descend into the depths of the glacier via ''moulins''. Within or beneath the glacier, the stream will flow in an englacial or sub-glacial tunnel. Sometimes these tunnels reemerge at the surface of the glacier.

Speed

The speed of glacial displacement is partly determined by friction. Friction makes the ice at the bottom of the glacier move more slowly than the upper portion. In alpine glaciers, friction is also generated at the valley's side walls, which slows the edges relative to the center. This was confirmed by experiments in the 19th century, in which stakes were planted in a line across an alpine glacier, and as time passed, those in the center moved farther.

Mean speeds vary greatly. There may be no motion in stagnant areas, where trees can establish themselves on surface sediment deposits such as in Alaska. In other cases they can move as fast as 20–30 meters per day, as in the case of Greenlands's Jakobshavn Isbræ (), or 2–3 m per day on Byrd Glacier, the largest glacier in the world in Antarctica. Velocity increases with increasing slope, increasing thickness, increasing snowfall, increasing longitudinal confinement, increasing basal temperature, increasing meltwater production and reduced bed hardness.

A few glaciers have periods of very rapid advancement called surges. These glaciers exhibit normal movement until suddenly they accelerate, then return to their previous state. During these surges, the glacier may reach velocities far greater than normal speed. These surges may be caused by failure of the underlying bedrock, the ponding of meltwater at the base of the glacier — perhaps delivered from a supraglacial lake — or the simple accumulation of mass beyond a critical "tipping point".

In glaciated areas where the glacier moves faster than one kilometer per year, glacial earthquakes occur. These are large scale tremblors that have seismic magnitudes as high as 6.1.

The number of glacial earthquakes in Greenland show a peak every year in July, August and September, and the number is increasing over time. In a study using data from January 1993 through October 2005, more events were detected every year since 2002, and twice as many events were recorded in 2005 as there were in any other year. This increase in the numbers of glacial earthquakes in Greenland may be a response to global warming.

Seismic waves are also generated by the Whillans Ice Stream, a large, fast-moving river of ice pouring from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Ice Shelf. Two bursts of seismic waves are released every day, each one equivalent to a magnitude 7 earthquake, and are seemingly related to the tidal action of the Ross Sea. During each event a 96 by 193 kilometer (60 by 120 mile) region of the glacier moves as much as .67 meters (2.2 ft) over about 25 minutes, remains still for 12 hours, then moves another half-meter. The seismic waves are recorded at seismographs around Antarctica, and even as far away as Australia, a distance of more than 6,400 kilometers. Because the motion takes place of such along period of time 10 to 25 minutes, it cannot be felt by scientists standing on the moving glacier. It is not known if these events are related to global warming

Ogives

''Ogives'' are alternating dark and light bands of ice occurring as narrow wave crests and wave valleys on glacier surfaces. They only occur below icefalls, but not all icefalls have ogives below them. Once formed, they bend progressively downglacier due to the increased velocity toward the glacier's centerline. Ogives are linked to seasonal motion of the glacier as the width of one dark and one light band generally equals the annual movement of the glacier. The ridges and valleys are formed because ice from an icefall is severely broken up, thereby increasing ablation surface area during the summertime. This creates a swale and space for snow accumulation in the winter, which in turn creates a ridge. Sometimes ogives are described as either wave ogives or band ogives, in which they are solely undulations or varying color bands, respectively.

Geography

Glaciers occur on every continent and approximately 47 countries. Extensive glaciers are found in Antarctica, Chilean Patagonia, Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Iceland. Mountain glaciers are widespread, e.g., in the Andes, the Himalaya, the Rocky Mountains, the Caucasus, and the Alps. On mainland Australia no glaciers exist today, although a small glacier on Mount Kosciuszko was present in the last glacial period, and Tasmania was extensively glaciated. The South Island of New Zealand has many glaciers including Tasman, Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. In New Guinea, small, rapidly diminishing, glaciers are located on its highest summit massif of Puncak Jaya. Africa has glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on Mount Kenya and in the Ruwenzori Range.

Permanent snow cover is affected by factors such as the degree of slope on the land, amount of snowfall and the winds. As temperature decreases with altitude, high mountains — even those near the Equator — have permanent snow cover on their upper portions, above the snow line. Examples include Mount Kilimanjaro and the Tropical Andes in South America; however, the only snow to occur exactly on the Equator is at on the southern slope of Volcán Cayambe in Ecuador.

Conversely, areas of the Arctic, such as Banks Island, and the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica are considered polar deserts, as they receive little snowfall despite the bitter cold. Cold air, unlike warm air, is unable to transport much water vapor. Even during glacial periods of the Quaternary, Manchuria, lowland Siberia, and central and northern Alaska, though extraordinarily cold had such light snowfall that glaciers could not form.

In addition to the dry, unglaciated polar regions, some mountains and volcanoes in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina are high ( - ) and cold, but the relative lack of precipitation prevents snow from accumulating into glaciers. This is because these peaks are located near or in the hyperarid Atacama desert.

Glacial geology

Rocks and sediments are added to glaciers through various processes. Glaciers erode the terrain principally through two methods: abrasion and '''plucking.

As the glacier flows over the bedrock's fractured surface, it softens and lifts blocks of rock that are brought into the ice. This process is known as plucking, and it is produced when subglacial water penetrates the fractures and the subsequent freezing expansion separates them from the bedrock. When the ice expands, it acts as a lever that loosens the rock by lifting it. This way, sediments of all sizes become part of the glacier's load. The rocks frozen into the bottom of the ice then act like grit in sandpaper.

Abrasion occurs when the ice and the load of rock fragments slide over the bedrock and function as sandpaper that smooths and polishes the surface situated below. This pulverized rock is called rock flour. The flour is formed by rock grains of a size between 0.002 and 0.00625 mm. Sometimes the amount of rock flour produced is so high that currents of meltwaters acquire a grayish color. These processes of erosion lead to steeper valley walls and mountain slopes in alpine settings, which can cause avalanches and rock slides. These further add material to the glacier.

Visible characteristics of glacial abrasion are glacial striations. These are produced when the bottom's ice contains large chunks of rock that mark scratches in the bedrock. By mapping the direction of the flutes, researchers can determine the direction of the glacier's movement. Chatter marks are seen as lines of roughly crescent-shape depressions in the rock underlying a glacier, caused by the abrasion where a boulder in the ice catches and is then released repetitively as the glacier drags it over the underlying basal rock.

The rate of glacier erosion is variable. The differential erosion undertaken by the ice is controlled by six important factors:

Velocity of glacial movement;

Thickness of the ice;

Shape, abundance and hardness of rock fragments contained in the ice at the bottom of the glacier;

Relative ease of erosion of the surface under the glacier;

Thermal conditions at the glacier base; and

Permeability and water pressure at the glacier base.

Material that becomes incorporated in a glacier are typically carried as far as the zone of ablation before being deposited. Glacial deposits are of two distinct types:

Glacial till: material directly deposited from glacial ice. Till includes a mixture of undifferentiated material ranging from clay size to boulders, the usual composition of a moraine.

Fluvial and outwash: sediments deposited by water. These deposits are stratified through various processes, such as boulders' being separated from finer particles.

The larger pieces of rock which are encrusted in till or deposited on the surface are called "glacial erratics". They may range in size from pebbles to boulders, but as they may be moved great distances, they may be of drastically different type than the material upon which they are found. Patterns of glacial erratics provide clues of past glacial motions.

Moraines

Glacial moraines are formed by the deposition of material from a glacier and are exposed after the glacier has retreated. These features usually appear as linear mounds of till, a non-sorted mixture of rock, gravel and boulders within a matrix of a fine powdery material. Terminal or end moraines are formed at the foot or terminal end of a glacier. Lateral moraines are formed on the sides of the glacier. Medial moraines are formed when two different glaciers, flowing in the same direction, coalesce and the lateral moraines of each combine to form a moraine in the middle of the merged glacier. Less apparent is the ground moraine, also called ''glacial drift'', which often blankets the surface underneath much of the glacier downslope from the equilibrium line. Glacial meltwaters contain rock flour, an extremely fine powder ground from the underlying rock by the glacier's movement. Other features formed by glacial deposition include long snake-like ridges formed by streambeds under glaciers, known as ''eskers'', and distinctive streamlined hills, known as ''drumlins''.

''Stoss-and-lee'' erosional features are formed by glaciers and show the direction of their movement. Long linear rock scratches (that follow the glacier's direction of movement) are called ''glacial striations'', and divots in the rock are called ''chatter marks''. Both of these features are left on the surfaces of stationary rock that were once under a glacier and were formed when loose rocks and boulders in the ice were transported over the rock surface. Transport of fine-grained material within a glacier can smooth or polish the surface of rocks, leading to glacial polish. Glacial erratics are rounded boulders that were left by a melting glacier and are often seen perched precariously on exposed rock faces after glacial retreat.

The term ''moraine'' is of French origin. It was coined by peasants to describe alluvial embankments and rims found near the margins of glaciers in the French Alps. In modern geology, the term is used more broadly, and is applied to a series of formations, all of which are composed of till.

Drumlins

Drumlins are asymmetrical, canoe shaped hills with aerodynamic profiles made mainly of till. Their heights vary from 15 to 50 meters and they can reach a kilometer in length. The tilted side of the hill looks toward the direction from which the ice advanced (''stoss''), while the longer slope follows the ice's direction of movement (''lee'').

Drumlins are found in groups called ''drumlin fields'' or ''drumlin camps''. An example of these fields is found east of Rochester, New York, and it is estimated that it contains about 10,000 drumlins.

Although the process that forms drumlins is not fully understood, it can be inferred from their shape that they are products of the plastic deformation zone of ancient glaciers. It is believed that many drumlins were formed when glaciers advanced over and altered the deposits of earlier glaciers.

Glacial valleys

Before glaciation, mountain valleys have a characteristic "V" shape, produced by downward erosion by water. However, during glaciation, these valleys widen and deepen, forming a "U"-shaped glacial valley. Besides the deepening and widening of the valley, the glacier also smooths the valley due to erosion. In this way, it eliminates the spurs of earth that extend across the valley. Because of this interaction, triangular cliffs called truncated spurs are formed.

Many glaciers deepen their valleys more than their smaller tributaries. Therefore, when the glaciers recede from the region, the valleys of the tributary glaciers remain above the main glacier's depression, and these are called hanging valleys.

In parts of the soil that were affected by abrasion and plucking, the depressions left can be filled by lakes, called paternoster lakes.

At the 'start' of a classic valley glacier is the cirque, which has a bowl shape with escarped walls on three sides, but open on the side that descends into the valley. In the cirque, an accumulation of ice is formed. These begin as irregularities on the side of the mountain, which are later augmented in size by the coining of the ice. Once the glacier melts, these corries are usually occupied by small mountain lakes called tarns.

There may be two glacial cirques 'back to back' which erode deep into their backwalls until only a narrow ridge, called an arête is left. This structure may result in a mountain pass.

Glaciers are also responsible for the creation of fjords (deep coves or inlets) and escarpments that are found at high latitudes.

Arêtes and horns (pyramid peak)

An arête is a narrow crest with a sharp edge. The meeting of three or more arêtes creates pointed pyramidal peaks and in extremely steep-sided forms these are called horns.

Both features may have the same process behind their formation: the enlargement of cirques from glacial plucking and the action of the ice. Horns are formed by cirques that encircle a single mountain.

Arêtes emerge in a similar manner; the only difference is that the cirques are not located in a circle, but rather on opposite sides along a divide. Arêtes can also be produced by the collision of two parallel glaciers. In this case, the glacial tongues cut the divides down to size through erosion, and polish the adjacent valleys.

Roche moutonnée

Some rock formations in the path of a glacier are sculpted into small hills with a shape known as ''roche moutonnée'' or "sheepback" rock. An elongated, rounded, asymmetrical, bedrock knob can be produced by glacier erosion. It has a gentle slope on its up-glacier side and a steep to vertical face on the down-glacier side. The glacier abrades the smooth slope that it flows along, while rock is torn loose from the downstream side and carried away in ice, a process known as 'plucking'. Rock on this side is fractured by a combination of various forces, such as water, ice in rock cracks, and structural stresses.

Alluvial stratification

The water that rises from the ablation zone moves away from the glacier and carries with it fine eroded sediments. As the speed of the water decreases, so does its capacity to carry objects in suspension. The water then gradually deposits the sediment as it runs, creating an alluvial plain. When this phenomenon occurs in a valley, it is called a ''valley train''. When the deposition is to an estuary, the sediments are known as "bay mud".

Outwash plains and valley trains are usually accompanied by basins known as "kettles". These are glacial depressions produced when large ice blocks are stuck in the glacial alluvium. After they melt, the sediment is left with holes. The diameter of such depressions ranges from 5 m to 13 km, with depths of up to 45 meters. Most are circular in shape due to the melting blocks of ice becoming rounded. The lakes that often form in these depressions are known as "kettle lakes".

Deposits in contact with ice

When a glacier reduces in size to a critical point, its flow stops, and the ice becomes stationary. Meanwhile, meltwater flows over, within, and beneath the ice leave stratified alluvial deposits. Because of this, as the ice melts, it leaves stratified deposits in the form of columns, terraces and clusters. These types of deposits are known as "deposits in contact with ice".

When those deposits take the form of columns of tipped sides or mounds, they are called ''kames''. Some ''kames'' form when meltwater deposits sediments through openings in the interior of the ice. In other cases, they are just the result of fans or deltas towards the exterior of the ice produced by meltwater. When the glacial ice occupies a valley, it can form terraces or ''kame'' along the sides of the valley.

A third type of deposit formed in contact with the ice is characterized by long, narrow sinuous crests, composed fundamentally of sand and gravel deposited by streams of meltwater flowing within, or beneath the glacier. After the ice has melted, these linear ridges or eskers remain as landscape features. Some of these crests have heights exceeding 100 meters and their lengths surpass 100 km.

Loess deposits

Very fine glacial sediments or rock flour is often picked up by wind blowing over the bare surface and may be deposited great distances from the original fluvial deposition site. These eolian loess deposits may be very deep, even hundreds of meters, as in areas of China and the Midwestern United States of America. Katabatic winds can be important in this process.

Transportation and erosion

Entrainment is the picking up of loose material by the glacier from along the bed and valley sides. Entrainment can happen by regelation or by the ice simply picking up the debris.

Basal ice freezing is thought to be to be made by glaciohydraulic supercooling, though some studies show that even where physical conditions allow it to occur, the process may not be responsible for observed sequences of basal ice.

Plucking is the process involves the glacier freezing onto the valley sides and subsequent ice movement pulling away masses of rock. As the bedrock is greater in strength than the glacier, only previously loosened material can be removed. It can be loosened by local pressure and temperature, water and pressure release of the rock itself.

Supraglacial debris is carried on the surface of the glacier as lateral and medial moraines. In summer ablation, surface melt water carries a small load and this often disappears down crevasses.

Englacial debris is moraine carried within the body of the glacier.

Subglacial debris is moved along the floor of the valley either by the ice as ground moraine or by meltwater streams formed by pressure melting.

Deposition

Lodgement till is identical to ground moraine. It is material that is smeared on to the valley floor when its weight becomes too great to be moved by the glacier.

Ablation till is a combination of englacial and supraglacial moraine. It is released as a stationary glacier begins to melt and material is dropped ''in situ''.

Dumping is when a glacier moves material to its outermost or lowermost end and dumps it.

Deformation flow is the change of shape of the rock and land due to the glacier.

Isostatic rebound

This rise of a part of the crust is due to an isostatic adjustment. A large mass, such as an ice sheet/glacier, depresses the crust of the Earth and displaces the mantle below. The depression is about a third the thickness of the ice sheet. After the glacier melts the mantle begins to flow back to its original position pushing the crust back to its original position. This post-glacial rebound, which lags melting of the ice sheet/glacier, is currently occurring in measurable amounts in Scandinavia and the Great Lakes region of North America.

An interesting geomorphological feature created by the same process, but on a smaller scale, is known as dilation-faulting. It occurs within rock where previously compressed rock is allowed to return to its original shape, but more rapidly than can be maintained without faulting, leading to an effect similar to that which would be seen if the rock were hit by a large hammer. This can be observed in recently de-glaciated parts of Iceland and Cumbria.

Glaciers on Mars

Elsewhere in the solar system, the polar ice caps of Mars show glacial features. Especially the south polar cap is compared to glaciers on Earth. Other glacial features on Mars are glacial debris aprons and the lineated valley fills of the ''fretted terrain'' in northern Arabia Terra. Topographical features and computer models indicate the existence of more glaciers in Mars' past.

Martian glaciers are affected by the thin atmosphere of Mars. Because of the low atmospheric pressure, ablation near the surface is solely due to sublimation, not melting. As on Earth, many glaciers are covered with a layer of rocks which insulates the ice. A radar instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter found ice under a thin layer of rocks in formations called Lobate Debris Aprons (LDA's).

See also

Aufeis

Cryoseism

Effects of global warming

Glacial motion

Glacier growing

Global warming

Sag (geology)

Surge (glacier)

Cited references

Uncited references

An excellent less-technical treatment of all aspects, with superb photographs and firsthand accounts of glaciologists' experiences. All images of this book can be found online (see Weblinks: Glaciers-online) An undergraduate-level textbook. A textbook for undergraduates avoiding mathematical complexities A textbook devoted to explaining the geography of our planet. A comprehensive reference on the physical principles underlying formation and behavior.

External links

Glaciers of the Pyrenees

on PBS "On Thin Ice"

Photo project tracks changes in Himalayan glaciers since 1921

Short radio episode ''California Glaciers'' from ''The Mountains of California'' by John Muir, 1894. California Legacy Project.

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:Bodies of ice Category:Montane ecology Category:Glacial landforms

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Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
{{infobox president | name	Jorge Montt
order	President of Government Junta of Chile
term start	August 31, 1891
term end	December 26, 1891
order2	12th President of Chile
term start2	December 26, 1891
term end2	September 18, 1896
predecessor2	Manuel Baquedano
successor2	Federico Errázuriz Echaurren
birth date	April 26, 1845
birth place	Casablanca, Chile
death date	October 08, 1922 (aged 77)
death place	Santiago, Chile
spouse	Leonor Frederick Ledesma
party	none
vicepresident	}}

Jorge Montt Álvarez (April 26, 1845 - October 8, 1922) was vice-admiral of the Chilean Navy and president of Chile from 1891 to 1896.

Early life

Born in Casablanca, Chile, he led a civil war against President José Manuel Balmaceda to become provisional leader and eventually president. He was a relative of previous Chilean president Manuel Montt, and future president Pedro Montt. He died in Santiago in 1922.

Presidency

The close of the revolution against Balmaceda left the government of Chile in the hands of the junta under whose guidance the military and naval operations had been organized. Admiral Jorge Montt had been the head of this revolutionary committee, and he acted as president of the provisional government when the administration of the country changed hands after the victory of the Congressional party. An election was then immediately ordered for the choice of a president of the republic and for representatives in the senate and chamber of deputies. Admiral Montt, as head of the executive power, staunchly refused to allow official influence to be brought to bear in any way in the presidential campaign. The great majority of the voters, however, required no pressure to decide who was in their opinion the man most fit to administer the affairs of the republic.

An election was held, and Admiral Montt was duly chosen by a nearly unanimous vote to be chief magistrate for the constitutional term of six years. The senate and chamber of deputies were formally constituted in due course, and the government of the republic resumed normal conditions of existence. The new president showed admirable tact in dealing with the difficult problem he was called upon to face. Party feeling still ran high between the partisans of the two sides of the recent conflict. Admiral Montt took the view that it was politic and just to let bygones be bygones, and he acted conscientiously by this principle in all administrative measures in connection with the supporters of the late President Balmaceda. Early in 1892, amnesty was granted to the officers of the Balmaceda regime, and they were freely permitted to return to Chile without any attempt being made to molest them. The first political act of national importance of the new government was the grant of control to the municipalities, which hitherto had possessed little power to direct local affairs and were not even permitted to dispose of the municipal revenues to any important amount without first obtaining the consent of the central government. Almost absolute power was now given these corporations to manage their own concerns, and the organization of the police was placed in their hands; at a later period, however, it was found necessary to modify this latter condition. President Montt next turned his attention towards the question of how best to repair the damage occasioned to the country by eight months of civil warfare. The plan of public works authorized in 1887 was reconsidered, and the construction of portions of the various undertakings recommenced. The army and navy were reorganized. Additional instructors were brought from Germany, and all arms of the military service were placed on a thoroughly efficient footing in matters of drill and discipline. Several new and powerful cruisers were added to the navy, and the internal economy of this branch of the national defence was thoroughly inspected; many defects were remedied.

President Montt then took in hand the question of a reform of the currency, the abolition of nonconvertible paper money, and the re-establishment of a gold monetary standard for the republic. This reform of the currency became the keynote of the president's policy during the remainder of his term of office. Great opposition was raised by the representatives of the debtor class in congress to the suppression of the nonconvertible paper money, but in the end President Montt carried the day, and on the 11th of February 1895 a measure finally became law establishing a gold currency as the only tender in Chile. In July 1896, the Conversion Act was put in force, a dollar of 18d. being the monetary unit adopted.

In 1895, relations with the neighbouring republic of Argentina began to become somewhat strained in regard to the interpretation of the treaty concerning the boundary between the two countries. The treaties of 1881, 1893 and 1895 left doubts in the minds of both Chileans and Argentines as to the position of the frontier line. On the 17th of April 1896, another protocol was drawn up, by which the contending parties agreed to submit any differences to the arbitration of Great Britain, at the instance of one or both governments. President Montt had now fulfilled his term of office, and on the 18th of September 1896 he handed over the presidential power to his successor, Federico Errázuriz Echaurren, who had been duly elected in the month of June previously.

See also

Chilean Civil War

Montt family

Category:1845 births Category:1922 deaths Category:People from Valparaíso Province Category:Chilean people of Catalan descent Jorge Montt Category:Presidents of Chile Category:Chilean admirals

ca:Jorge Montt Álvarez de:Jorge Montt Álvarez es:Jorge Montt it:Jorge Montt la:Georgius Montt Álvarez ka:ხორხე მონტი pt:Jorge Montt sl:Jorge Montt yo:Jorge Montt

Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
Name	Zachary Taylor
Office	12th President of the United States
Vicepresident	Millard Fillmore
Term start	March 4, 1849*
Term end	July 9, 1850
Predecessor	James Polk
Successor	Millard Fillmore
Birth date	November 24, 1784
Birth place	Barboursville, Virginia, U.S.
Death date	July 09, 1850
Death place	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Party	Whig Party
Spouse	Margaret Smith
Children	Ann MackallSarahOctavia PannillMargaret SmithMary ElizabethRichard
Profession	Major general
Religion	Episcopal
Signature	Zachary Taylor Signature-2.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Serviceyears	1808–1848
Rank	Major general
Battles	War of 1812Black Hawk WarSecond Seminole WarMexican-American WarBattle of MonterreyBattle of Buena Vista
Footnotes	*Taylor's term of service was scheduled to begin on March 4, 1849, but as this day fell on a Sunday, Taylor refused to be sworn in until the following day. Vice President Millard Fillmore was also not sworn in on that day. Most scholars believe that according to the Constitution, Taylor's term began on March 4, regardless of whether he had taken the oath or not. }}

Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States (1849-1850) and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass. Taylor was the last President to hold slaves while in office, and the second and also last Whig to win a presidential election.

Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor died just 16 months into his term, the third shortest tenure of any President. He is thought to have died of gastroenteritis. Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less time. Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.

Early life

Zachary Taylor was born on a farm on November 24, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia, to a prominent family of planters of English ancestry. He was the youngest of three sons in a family of nine children. His mother was Sarah Strother Taylor, and his father, Richard Taylor, had served with George Washington during the American Revolution. Taylor was a descendant of Elder William Brewster, the Pilgrim colonist leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony, and passenger aboard the Mayflower and one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact; Isaac Allerton Jr., the son of Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster. Allerton was a 1650 graduate of Harvard College and was a merchant in Colonial America; first in business with his father in New England, and after his father's death, in Virginia. He was a Burgess for Northumberland County and a Councilor of Virginia. He became a member of the Virginia militia and ultimately rose to the rank of colonel; James Madison was Taylor's second cousin, and both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Robert E. Lee were kinsmen. During his youth, he lived on the frontier in Louisville, Kentucky, residing in a small cabin in a wood during most of his childhood, before moving to a brick house as a result of his family's increased prosperity. He shared the house with seven brothers and sisters, and his father owned , town lots in Louisville, and twenty-six slaves by 1800. Since there were no schools on the Kentucky frontier, Taylor had only a basic education growing up, provided by tutors his father hired from time to time. He was reportedly a poor student; his handwriting, spelling, and grammar were described as "crude and unrefined throughout his life." When Taylor was older, he decided to join the military.

Military career

On May 3, 1808, Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment from his cousin James Madison. He was ordered west into Indiana Territory, and was promoted to captain in November 1810. He assumed command of Fort Knox when the commandant fled, and maintained command until 1814.

During the War of 1812, Taylor successfully defended Fort Harrison in Indiana Territory, from an attack by Indians under the command of Shawnee chief Tecumseh. As a result, Taylor was promoted to the temporary rank of major, and led the 7th Infantry in a campaign ending in the Battle of Wild Cat Creek. Taylor was also commander of the short-lived Fort Johnson (1814), the last toehold of the U.S. Army in the upper Mississippi River Valley until it was abandoned and Taylor's troops retreated to Fort Cap au Gris. Reduced to the rank of captain when the war ended in 1814, he resigned from the army, but reentered it after he was commissioned again as a major a year later. In 1819, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was promoted to full colonel in 1832.

In late 1821, stationed with what was remaining of the 7th Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel Taylor received orders from General Gaines to "take his troops up the Red River to the vicinity of Natchitoches, Louisiana for the purpose of locating a new post more convenient to the Sabine River frontier. In March 1822, Colonel Taylor took command of Fort Jesup, a small point—originally called Shield's Spring—of high ground some twenty-five miles south-southwest of Natchitoches. Charged with maintaining an American presence in the former Neutral Strip between Louisiana and Spanish Texas. Later, in 1845, Fort Jesup held Colonel Taylor's "Army of Observation" and provided a staging ground for the coming Mexican-American War

Taylor led the 1st Infantry Regiment in the Black Hawk War of 1832, personally accepting the surrender of Chief Black Hawk. In 1837, he was directed to Florida, where he defeated the Seminole Indians on Christmas Day, and afterwards was promoted to brigadier general and given command of all American troops in Florida. He was made commander of the southern division of the United States Army in 1841.

Mexican-American War

In 1845, Texas became a U.S. state, and President James K. Polk directed Taylor to deploy into disputed territory on the Texas-Mexico border, under the order to defend the state against any attempts by Mexico to take it back after it had lost control by 1836. Taylor was given command of American troops on the Rio Grande, the Army of Occupation, on April 23, 1845. When some of Taylor's men were attacked by Mexican forces near the river, Polk told Congress in May 1846 that a war between Mexico and the United States had started by an act of the former. That same month, Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto, using superior artillery to defeat the significantly larger Mexican opposition. In September, Taylor was able to inflict heavy casualties upon the Mexican defenders at the Battle of Monterrey. The city of Monterrey was considered "un-destroyable". He was criticized for not ensuring the Mexican army that surrendered at Monterrey disbanded. Afterwards, half of Taylor's army was ordered to join General Winfield Scott's soldiers as they besieged Veracruz. Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna discovered, through a letter written by Scott to Taylor that had been intercepted by the Mexicans, that Taylor had only 6,000 men, many of whom were not regular army soldiers, and resolved to defeat him. Santa Anna attacked Taylor with 20,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, inflicting 672 American casualties at a cost of 1,800 Mexican. As a result, Santa Anna left the field of battle.

Buena Vista turned Taylor into a hero, and he was compared to George Washington and Andrew Jackson in the American popular press. Stories were reportedly told about "his informal dress, the tattered straw hat on his head, and the casual way he always sat on top of his beloved horse, "Old Whitey," while shots buzzed around his head".

Election of 1848

In his capacity as a career officer, Taylor had never reportedly revealed his political beliefs before 1848, nor voted before that time. He thought of himself as an independent, believing in a strong and sound banking system for the country, and thought that Andrew Jackson should not have allowed the Second Bank of the United States to collapse in 1836. He believed it was impractical to talk about expanding slavery into the western areas of the United States, as he concluded that neither cotton nor sugar (both were produced in great quantities as a result of slavery) could be easily grown there through a plantation economy. He was also a firm nationalist, and due to his experience of seeing many people die as a result of warfare, he believed that secession was not a good way to resolve national problems. Taylor, although he did not agree with their stand on protective tariffs and expensive internal improvements, aligned himself with Whig Party governing policies; the President should not be able to veto a law, unless that law was against the Constitution of the United States; that the office should not interfere with Congress, and that the power of collective decision-making, as well as the Cabinet, should be strong.

After the American victory at Buena Vista, "Old Rough and Ready" political clubs were formed which supported Taylor for President, although no one knew for sure what his political beliefs were. Taylor declared, as the 1848 Whig Party convention approached, that he had always been a Whig in principle, but he did consider himself a Jeffersonian-Democrat. Many southerners believed that Taylor supported slavery, and its expansion into the new territory absorbed from Mexico, and some were angered when Taylor suggested that if he were elected President he would not veto the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed against such an expansion. This position did not enhance his support from activist antislavery elements in the Northern United States, as these wanted Taylor to speak out strongly in support of the Proviso, not simply fail to veto it. Most abolitionists did not support Taylor, since he was a slave-owner. Many southerners also knew that Taylor supported states' rights, and was opposed to protective tariffs and government spending for internal improvements. The Whigs hoped that he put the federal union of the United States above all else.

Taylor received the Whig nomination for President in 1848. Millard Fillmore of Cayuga County, New York was chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee. His homespun ways and his status as a war hero were political assets. Taylor defeated Lewis Cass, the Democratic candidate, and Martin Van Buren, the Free Soil candidate. Taylor was the last Southerner to be elected president until Lyndon Johnson, 116 years later in 1964.

Taylor ignored the Whig platform, as historian Michael Holt explains:

Presidency

Policies

Although Taylor had subscribed to Whig principles of legislative leadership, he was not inclined to be a puppet of Whig leaders in Congress. He ran his administration in the same rule-of-thumb fashion with which he had fought Native Americans.

Under Taylor's administration, the United States Department of the Interior was organized, although the legislation authorizing the Department had been approved on President Polk's last day in office. He appointed former Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing the first Secretary of the Interior.

Slavery

At the time Taylor became President, the issue of slavery in the western territories of the United States had come to dominate American political discourse, and debate between extreme pro and antislavery viewpoints had become very pronounced. In 1849, he advised the residents of California, including the Mormons around Salt Lake, and the residents of New Mexico to create state constitutions and apply for statehood in December when Congress met. He correctly predicted that these constitutions would state against slavery in California and New Mexico. In December 1849, and January 1850, Taylor told Congress that it should allow them to become states, once their constitutions arrived in Washington D.C. He also urged that there should not be an attempt to develop territorial governments for the two future states, since that might increase tension between pro and antislavery activists regarding a congressional prohibition of slavery in the territories.

Foreign affairs

Taylor and his Secretary of State, John M. Clayton, lacked much experience in foreign affairs before Taylor assumed the presidency, and Taylor was not directly involved in diplomacy or the development of American foreign policies. Taylor's administration attempted to stop a filibustering expedition against Cuba, argued with France and Portugal over reparation disputes owed to the US, and supported German liberals during the revolutions of 1848. The administration confronted Spain, which had arrested several Americans on the charge of piracy, and assisted the United Kingdom's search for a team of British explorers who had gotten lost in the Arctic. The United States had planned to construct a canal across Nicaragua, but the British opposed the idea, arguing that they held a special status in neighboring Honduras. In what was described by one source as Taylor's "most important foreign policy move", delicate negotiations were performed with Britain, and a "landmark agreement" was reached called the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. Both Britain and the United States agreed not to claim control of any canal that might be built in Nicaragua. The treaty is considered to have been an important step in the development of an Anglo-American alliance, and "effectively weakened U.S. commitment to Manifest Destiny as a formal policy while recognizing the supremacy of U.S. interests in Central America". The creation of the treaty was Taylor's last act of state.

The Compromise of 1850

The slavery issue dominated Taylor's short term. Although he owned slaves on his plantation in Louisiana, he took a moderate stance on the territorial expansion of slavery, angering fellow Southerners. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. Persons "taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang ... with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Mexico." He never wavered. Henry Clay then proposed a complex Compromise of 1850. Taylor died as it was being debated. (The Clay version failed but another version did pass under the new president, Millard Fillmore.)

Administration and cabinet

clear	yes
name	Taylor
president	Zachary Taylor
president start	1849
president end	1850
vice president	Millard Fillmore
vice president start	1849
vice president end	1850
state	John M. Clayton
state start	1849
state end	1850
war	George W. Crawford
war start	1849
war end	1850
treasury	William M. Meredith
treasury start	1849
treasury end	1850
justice	Reverdy Johnson
justice start	1849
justice end	1850
post	Jacob Collamer
post start	1849
post end	1850
navy	William B. Preston
navy start	1849
navy end	1850
interior	Thomas Ewing, Sr.
interior start	1849
interior end	1850 }}

Judicial appointments

Taylor appointed only four federal judges, all to United States district courts:

Death

The true cause of Zachary Taylor's premature death is not fully established. On July 4, 1850, after watching a groundbreaking ceremony for the Washington Monument during the Independence Day celebration, Taylor sought refuge from the oppressive heat by consuming a pitcher of milk and a bowl of cherries. At about 10:00 in the morning on July 9, 1850, very ill, Taylor called his wife to him and asked her not to weep, saying: "I have always done my duty, I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me." Upon his sudden death on July 9, the cause was listed as ''bilious diarrhoea, or a bilious cholera''. He was interred in the Public Vault (built in 1835 to hold remains of notables until either the grave site could be prepared or transportation arranged to another city) of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. from July 13, 1850 to October 25, 1850. Taylor was then transported to the Taylor Family plot where his parents are buried, on the old Taylor homestead estate known as 'Springfield'. In 1883, the Commonwealth of Kentucky placed a fifty foot monument near Zachary Taylor's grave. It is topped by a life-sized statue of Zachary Taylor.

By the 1920s, the Taylor family initiated the effort to turn the Taylor burial grounds into a national cemetery. The Commonwealth of Kentucky donated two pieces of land for the project, turning the half-acre Taylor family cemetery into . There, buried in the Taylor family plot, Zachary Taylor and his wife (who died in 1852) remained, until he and his wife were moved to their final resting place on May 6, 1926 in the newly commissioned Taylor mausoleum (made of limestone with a granite base, with a marble interior), nearby. Today, President Taylor and wife Margaret rest in the mausoleum in Louisville, Kentucky, at what is now the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.

Exhumation of 1991

In the late 1980s, college professor and author Clara Rising hypothesized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County, Kentucky, to order an exhumation. On June 17, 1991, Taylor's remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner, where radiological studies were conducted and samples of hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed. The remains were then returned to the cemetery and received appropriate honors at re-interment. He was re-interred in the same mausoleum he had been interred in since 1926. A monolith was constructed next to the mausoleum later on. Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed arsenic levels several hundred times lower than they would have been if Taylor had been poisoned. Rather, it was concluded that on a hot July day Taylor had attempted to cool himself with large amounts of cherries and iced milk. “In the unhealthy climate of Washington, with its open sewers and flies, Taylor came down with cholera morbus, or acute gastroenteritis as it is now called.” He might have recovered, Samuel Eliot Morison felt, but his doctors “drugged him with ipecac, calomel, opium and quinine (at 40 grains a whack), and bled and blistered him too. On July 9, he died.”

Assassination theories

Despite these findings, assassination theories have not been entirely put to rest. Michael Parenti devoted a chapter in his 1999 book ''History as Mystery'' to "The Strange Death of Zachary Taylor," speculating that Taylor was assassinated because of his moderate stance on the expansion of slavery – and that his autopsy was botched. It is suspected that Taylor was deliberately assassinated by arsenic poisoning from one of the citizen-provided dishes he sampled during the Independence Day celebration. Other dissenting historians claim as suspicious the facts that there were no eyewitness accounts of Taylor consuming cherries and milk on that day; that there are no confirmed cholera outbreaks in Washington in 1850; that Taylor's symptoms were not those of typhoid (spread by flies); that Taylor was not given the aforementioned drugs until he was already deathly sick, on the third day of his acute illness; and that Taylor was not bled until near death on the fifth and last day of his illness.

Personal life

In 1810, Taylor wed Margaret Smith, and they would have six children of whom the only son, Richard, would become a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army. One of Taylor's daughters, Sarah Knox Taylor, decided to marry in 1835 Jefferson Davis, the future President of the Confederate States of America, who at that time was a lieutenant. Taylor did not wish Sarah to marry him, and Taylor and Davis would not be reconciled until 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista, where Davis distinguished himself as a colonel. Sarah had died in 1835, three months into the marriage. Another of Taylor's daughters, Margaret Anne, died of liver failure at age 33. Around 1841, Aria Taylor established a home at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and gained a large plantation and a great number of slaves.

Taylor on US postage

The US Post Office released the first postage stamp issue honoring Zachary Taylor on June 21, 1875, a full 25 years after his death. In contrast, Lincoln first appeared on US postage stamps in 1866, only one year after his death while James Garfield would be honored with a postage stamp only seven months after his assassination. – Sixty three years later, in 1938 Taylor would appear again on a US Postage stamp, this time on the 12-cent Presidential Issue of 1938. Taylor's last appearance (to date, 2010) on a US postage stamp occurred in 1986 when he was honored on the AMERIPEX presidential issue. After Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln, Zachary Taylor is the fifth American President to appear on US postage. In all there are three different postage issues that have honored Taylor. See also: US Presidents on US postage stamps

Legacy

It is contended that Taylor was not President long enough to cause a substantial impact on the office of the Presidency, or the United States, and that he is not remembered as a great President.

The majority of historians believe that Taylor was too nonpolitical, considering he was in office at a time when being involved in politics required close ties with political operatives. The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is "recognized as an important step in [the] scaling down [of] the nation's commitment to Manifest Destiny as a policy."

Taylor is one of only four presidents who did not have an opportunity to nominate a judge to serve on the Supreme Court. The other three presidents are William Henry Harrison, Andrew Johnson, and Jimmy Carter.

In 1995, Taylor was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, the honor bestowed on the only U.S. President to have lived in Louisiana.

Considering the shortness of his presidency, Taylor's most notable legacy may be that he was the last U.S. President to own slaves while holding the Office of the President of the United States, in 1850.

Surviving family

Taylor's son, Richard, became a Confederate Lieutenant General, while his daughter, Sarah Knox Taylor (1814–1835), married future Confederate President Jefferson Davis three months before her death of malaria. Richard Taylor's granddaughter, Anita Vincent Stauffer, married into the McIlheney family of Avery Island, Louisiana.

Taylor's brother, Joseph Pannell Taylor, was a Brigadier General in the Union Army during the Civil War. (Joseph P. Taylor's son Joseph Hancock Taylor was a US Colonel in the Civil War and was also a son-in-law of Union General Montgomery C. Meigs.)

Taylor's niece, Emily Ellison Taylor, was the wife of Confederate General Lafayette McLaws.

Ann Taylor's son, John Taylor Wood, a U.S. Navy officer, defected to the Confederate side and later fled to Canada during the Civil War; his great-grandson, Zachary Taylor Wood, was Acting RCMP Commissioner, great-grandson Lieutenant Charles Carroll Wood died from wounds suffered during the Anglo Boer War, great-great-grandson Stuart Taylor Wood was Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and great-great-great-grandsons (Cst. Herschel Wood and Supt. (Ret) John Taylor Wood served in the RCMP.

See also

List of Presidents of the United States

Historical rankings of United States Presidents

US Presidents on US postage stamps

List of United States Presidents who died in office

References

Further reading

Bauer, Jack K. ''Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest''. Louisiana State University Press: 1993 ISBN 0807118516

''The Brewster Genealogy, 1566–1907: a Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the "Mayflower," ruling elder of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth Colony in 1620.'' by Emma C. Brewster Jones, New York: Grafton Press. 1908

Hamilton, Holman. ''Zachary Taylor: Soldier of the Republic'' (1941) vol 1

Hamilton, Holman. ''Zachary Taylor: Soldier in the White House'' (1951) vol 2

Holt, Michael F; ''The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War.'' (1999)

Otto, Julie Helen; Roberts, Gary Boyd (1995). ''Ancestors of American Presidents''. Santa Clarita, Calif: New England Historic Genealogical Society. ISBN 0-936124-19-9.

Silbey, Joel H. ''Party Over Section: The Rough and Ready Presidential Election of 1848'' (2009), 205 pp.

Smith, Elbert B. ''The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore''. University Press of Kansas: 1988. ISBN 070060362X

External links

1849 Inaugural Address

1849 State of the Union Message

Executive Order forbidding unlawful invasion of Cuba

Zachary Taylor: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress

White House Biography

Biography by Appleton's and Stanley L. Klos

Zachary Taylor State of the Union Address

Zachary Taylor letters from 1846–1848

Gen Taylor's letters: to Gen Gaines; Marcy's reprimand, Taylor's reply with fable alluded to

Category:1784 births Category:1850 deaths Category:American Episcopalians Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War Category:American people of the War of 1812 Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:History of the United States (1849–1865) Category:Infectious disease deaths in Washington, D.C. Category:Louisiana Whigs Category:People from Albemarle County, Virginia Category:People from Louisville, Kentucky Category:People from Orange County, Virginia Category:People of the Black Hawk War Category:People of the Seminole Wars Category:Presidents of the United States Category:Southeastern Louisiana University Zachary Category:United States Army generals Category:United States presidential candidates, 1848 Category:Whig Party Presidents of the United States Category:Whig Party (United States) presidential nominees Zachary Taylor

am:ዛከሪ ቴለር ang:Zachary Taylor ar:زكاري تايلور az:Zakari Teylor bn:জ্যাকারি টেইলার zh-min-nan:Zachary Taylor be:Закары Тэйлар be-x-old:Захары Тэйлар bcl:Zachary Taylor bs:Zachary Taylor bg:Закари Тейлър ca:Zachary Taylor ceb:Zachary Taylor cs:Zachary Taylor co:Zachary Taylor cy:Zachary Taylor da:Zachary Taylor de:Zachary Taylor et:Zachary Taylor es:Zachary Taylor eo:Zachary Taylor eu:Zachary Taylor fa:زکریا تیلور fr:Zachary Taylor ga:Zachary Taylor gv:Zachary Taylor gd:Zachary Taylor gl:Zachary Taylor ko:재커리 테일러 hi:ज़ेकरी टेलर hr:Zachary Taylor io:Zachary Taylor id:Zachary Taylor is:Zachary Taylor it:Zachary Taylor he:זאכרי טיילור pam:Zachary Taylor ka:ზაქარი ტეილორი rw:Zachary Taylor sw:Zachary Taylor la:Zacharias Taylor lv:Zaharijs Teilors lb:Zachary Taylor lt:Zachary Taylor hu:Zachary Taylor mr:झकॅरी टेलर ms:Zachary Taylor my:ဇက်ခရီ တေလာ nl:Zachary Taylor (politicus) ja:ザカリー・テイラー no:Zachary Taylor nn:Zachary Taylor oc:Zachary Taylor pnb:زچاری ٹیلر nds:Zachary Taylor pl:Zachary Taylor pt:Zachary Taylor ksh:Zachary Taylor ro:Zachary Taylor rm:Zachary Taylor ru:Тейлор, Закари sq:Zachary Taylor scn:Zachary Taylor simple:Zachary Taylor sl:Zachary Taylor sr:Закари Тејлор sh:Zachary Taylor fi:Zachary Taylor sv:Zachary Taylor tl:Zachary Taylor th:แซคารี เทย์เลอร์ tr:Zachary Taylor uk:Закарі Тейлор ur:زچاری ٹیلر vi:Zachary Taylor war:Zachary Taylor yi:זאכארי טעילאר yo:Zachary Taylor zh:扎卡里·泰勒