Source: learn.snowflake.com
Use the Roles diagram to explore the roles that have been assigned to us. Notice that in the diagram, some roles are linked to others in what looks like an org chart or family tree. This is because some roles get subsets of rights from other roles.
When Thierry and Benoit were first setting up Snowflake ROLES in Benoit's apartment they created the all-powerful ACCOUNTADMIN. Then, like a parent, giving some DNA to one child and some DNA to another, they set up system ROLES like SECURITYADMIN and SYSADMIN.
In this way, when ROLES are first designed, there is the idea of setting up different "children" to inherit from "parents" just as we might dole out DNA, or assets in a Last Will and Testament.
The same tree or chart as ACCOUNTADMIN are SYSADMIN, SECURITYADMIN and USERADMIN
This impersonation power only flows downward in the chart or tree. If we had been awarded SYSADMIN directly, we would not be able to impersonate ACCOUNTADMIN.