17 Flashcards
(33 cards)
Glacier
An accumulation of snow and
ice, that lasts year round.
Thick enough to flow downhill
under its own weight.
Categories of Glaciers
Mountain glaciers
Continental glaciers (Greenland, Ant Artica)
Mountain Glaciers - Cirque
Fill mountaintop bowls.
Mountain Glaciers - Valley
Low like rivers down valleys.
Mountain Glaciers - Ice caps
Covers peaks and ridges.
Mountain Glaciers - Piedmont
Spread out at the end of a valley.
Continental Glaciers
Vast ice sheets covering large
land areas.
Ice flows outward from thickest
part of sheet.
Basal slip
Forming or belonging to
a bottom layer.
Significant quantities of
meltwater forms at glacier base.
Plastic Deformation
Crevasses form at surface—upper zone is stretching.
Not reversable.
Zone of accumulation
Area of net snow addition.
Zone of ablation
Area of net ice loss.
Toe
The leading edge of a glacier.
Glaciers are important forces of
landscape change…
…Erosion, transport, deposition
Tarn
A lake inside a cirque.
Arete
Knife-edge ridge.
Two cirques or two
valley glaciers that have eroded
toward one another.
Glaciers act as…
…large-scale conveyor belts.
Sediment transport is always…
… in one direction (downhill).
Debris at the toe of a glacier is called…
…end moraine.
Moraines
Unsorted debris deposited by a
glacier.
(Moraines) Lateral
Forms along the flank of a
valley glacier.
(Moraines) Lateral
Forms along the flank of a valley glacier.
(Moraines) Medial
Mid-ice moraine from
merging of lateral moraines.
Glacial Till
Sediment dropped by glacial ice.
Erractics
Boulders dropped by glacial ice
Different from the underlying bedrock
Carried long distances in ice.