Glaciation

Question 1

What are ice advantages called?

Answer 1

Glaciation

Question 2

As well as ice sheets, what did glaciers do?

Answer 2

They filled and eroded the valleys

Question 3

What happened 18000 years ago?

Answer 3

In Europe, ice sheets spread down from the north as the climate changed

Question 4

What is a glacier

Answer 4

A mass of moving ice

Question 5

What does it move like

Answer 5

It moves in a valley, like a river, or flow out from a mountainous area across a plain, like a tongue of ice

Question 6

Where are they found?

Answer 6

They are found in high latitude = closer to the poles further away from the equator

High altitude = away from the poles glaciers only exist in mountainous terrains. As long as the Mountain is high enough there will be glaciers close to the equator

Question 7

How does it form

Answer 7

They developed where the temperature is cold enough to allow snow to accumulate over periods of years

Question 8

What is the four step process?

Answer 8

• snow flakes collect or accumulate in a hollow in a mountain side
• more and more snow falls on the flakes increasing the density or weight
• the increased weight compresses the snow at the bottom into solid ice
• if the ice does not melt and the snow continues to fall, the ice mass (glacier) will get bigger and heavier. Gravity causes it to go down hill slowly

Question 9

What is advancement, retreating and melting

Answer 9

Advancement= accumulation > melting

Retreat= melting> accumulation

Melting= abrasion

Question 10

What is frost shattering ?

Answer 10

A type of weathering where water repeatedly freezes and puts pressure on the rocks to break them down

Question 11

What is abrasion

Answer 11

A process of erosion where moraine carried by the glacier wears away the sides and floor of the valley

Question 12

What is plucking

Answer 12

Glacial ice freezes onto rocks and as it moves away pulls large pieces of Rock with it

Question 13

What are cirques/ corries ?

Answer 13

a half-open steep-sided hollow at the head of a valley or on a mountainside, formed by glacial erosion.

Question 14

What are aretes?

Answer 14

a sharp mountain ridge.

Question 15

What are pyramidal peaks

Answer 15

A pyramidal peak is formed where three or more corries and arêtes meet. The glaciers have carved away at the top of a mountain, creating a sharply pointed summit

Question 16

Glacial troughs

Answer 16

A U-shaped valley or glacial trough is formed by the process of glaciation. It has a characteristic U shape, with steep, straight sides and a flat bottom. Glaciated valleys are formed when a glacier travels across and down a slope, carving the valley by the action of scouring.

Question 17

What are Truncated Spurs

Answer 17

A truncated spur is a spur, which is a ridge that descends towards a valley floor or coastline from a higher elevation, that ends in an inverted-V face and was produced by the erosional truncation of the spur by the action of either streams, waves, or glaciers.

Question 18

What are hanging valleys

Answer 18

a valley which is cut across by a deeper valley or a cliff.

Question 19

Corrie or cirques

Answer 19

Large bowl shaped hollows in mountainous areas, snow builds up here so they are generally the source of ice for glaciers

The hollow is deepened and widened by the corrie glacier through the processes of abrasion and plucking

The over seeping leads to an arm chair shape characteristic of a corrie and cause a rock lip to be formed.

Question 20

What is a moraine

Answer 20

A moraine is a type of landform that’s created when a glacier deposits the material( till) that it has been transporting. It is made up of u sorted angular rocks. There are several types… Lateral, medial, ground, recessional, terminal

Question 21

What does a recessional moraine do?

Answer 21

It marks interruptions in the retreat of a glacier

Question 22

What is a terminal moraine

Answer 22

It’s found at the snout and marks the maximum advance of a glacier

Question 23

Medial moraine meaning

Answer 23

It’s found at the centre of a moraine

Question 24

Lateral moraine meaning

Answer 24

It’s produced from frost shattering of the valley sides and of the glacier

Question 25

Drumlins meaning

Answer 25

They are formed of till. They are elongated features that can reach a km or more in length. 500 m or so in width and over 50 dm in height

Question 26

What is a group of drumlins called

Answer 26

A swarm

Question 27

What are erratics.

Answer 27

A boulder that is different to the bedrock upon which it is sitting. They have been transported and deposited by a glacier. Therefore erratics are useful indicators of patterns of former ice flow

Question 28

During the last ice age, how much of the earth was covered in ice?

Answer 28

30%