While it is true that both glaciers and ice floes are large masses of ice that can be found in arctic regions, there is a major difference between them. Basically, glaciers originate on land, and ice floes form in open water and are a form of sea ice.
Glaciers are formed by the recrystallization of snow or other solid precipitation that does not significantly melt, even during melting season. The fallen snow compresses over many years (at a rate that depends on temperature and wetness) into ice. A glacier may also gain mass from the refreezing of meltwater at its base. Though glaciers are fed mainly by snowfall, they may also grow as a result of freezing of rain, hail, hoarfrost, and rime; avalanches may contribute snow to a glacier as well. Glaciers are found in Arctic areas, Antarctica, and on high mountains in temperate and even tropical climates. Glaciers that extend in continuous sheets and cover a large landmass, such as Antarctica or Greenland, are called ice sheets. If they are similar but smaller, they are termed ice caps. Glaciers confined within a path that directs their movements are mountain glaciers, those that spread on level ground at the foot of a glaciated region are piedmont glaciers, and those that spread from a glaciated region onto the ocean are ice shelves.
Ice floes, on the other hand, are made of frozen seawater. In calm conditions, a soupy suspension of crystals called frazil freezes together to form sheets and then continues to grow by a bottom-freezing process termed congelation. Under more turbulent conditions, frazil crystals collect into pancakes. As they grow, they thicken and stack on top of one another, eventually forming ice floes. Ice floes are fairly mobile and drift about on the ocean’s surface. The composition and life cycle of ice floes in the Antarctic Ocean are different from those in the Arctic Ocean.