ICE ICE Ice, the frozen form of liquid water, is abundant on the earth's surface, in the planetary system, and in interstellar space. If all the ice presently existing on earth melted, sea level would rise about 70 m. In some planets and in most moons, ice is the major constituent.
Ice is also present in many other moons, in the planetary ring systems, and in comets.
The mass of ice stored in the terrestrial polar ice sheets and in alpine glaciers is closely related to the climate. At lower temperatures and at pressures above 2 kbar many other ice phases with different crystalline structures exist. No other known substance exhibits such a variety of forms. Ih has negative slope. The equilibrium lines extend as metastable phase boundaries into the area of stability of other ice phases.