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How does wind help pack snow more tightly before it becomes glacier ice?
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glacier
Perito Moreno Glacier, Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina.
Wind plays a key role in the initial densification of a snowpack by physically breaking off the delicate, intricate points of individual snow crystals. Because these complex shapes are unstable, removing their sharp edges allows the remaining ice grains to fit more closely together, effectively packing them more tightly before they undergo further transformation into firn and eventually glacier ice.1