Technically, these glaciers aren’t “melting” after all. They’re
receding — and they’re not receding because they’re melting. A glacier is a river of ice that flows just like any other river. And they are receding because the ice fields that are the sources of these “rivers” aren’t getting enough precipitation to maintain the volume of ice flow in the glaciers.
Some of the most notable glaciers in the world are fed by ice fields that get so little precipitation that they’re classified as deserts.