The glaciers on Mount Shasta in California are growing because of global warming, experts say.
"When people look at glaciers around the world, the majority of them are shrinking," said Slawek Tulaczyk, a University of California, Santa Cruz, professor who studied the glaciers.
But the seven glaciers on Shasta, part of the Cascade mountains in northern California, "seem to be benefiting from the warming ocean," he said.
As the ocean warms, more moisture evaporates. As moisture moves inland, it falls as snow — enough on Shasta to more than offset a 1 C temperature rise in the past century.
The three smallest of the Shasta glaciers are more than twice the length they were in 1950.
Other glaciers in Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and Pakistan were in the same position as Shasta, but are now shrinking because rising temperatures have more than offset the increased snowfall.
As many as 90 per cent of Earth's mountain glaciers are getting smaller, said Lonnie Thompson from Ohio State University.
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