Cold Environments

Question 0

Define basal sliding

Answer 0

Large scale and often quite sudden movement of a portion of ice in a glacier usually lubricated by sub-glacial meltwater

Question 1

Define aretes

Answer 1

Steep-sided knife-edge mountain ridge often marking the edges of a corrie or the watershed between two valleys (troughs)

Question 2

Define cold-based glacier

Answer 2

Glacier where the base temperature is too low to enable liquid water to be present and where the glacier will probably be frozen to the ground

Question 3

Define compressional flow

Answer 3

Piling up or thickening of ice due to a decrease in the long profile valley floor gradient

Question 4

Define a corrie

Answer 4

Enlarged armchair shaped hollows on a mountainside characterised by a steep back wall and a hollowed out bowl, occasionally containing a tarn

Question 5

Define a drumlins

Answer 5

Egg shaped depositional features often in groups (swarms) resulting from the moulding of sub-glacial moraine by moving ice moving over the top

Question 6

Define an esker

Answer 6

Sinuous ridges found on the floor of a glacial trough formed by fluvioglacial deposition in a meandering sub glacial river

Question 7

Define extensional flow

Answer 7

Stretching or thinning of ice in response to an increase in gradient

Question 8

Define fragile environments

Answer 8

Natural environments where processes operate slowly and where ecosystems can be easily harmed and take a long time to recover

Question 9

Define froze heave

Answer 9

Small-scale upwards displacement of soil particles resulting from the freezing and expansion of water just below the ground surface

Question 10

Define frost shattering

Answer 10

Also known as freeze that a physical weathering process involving alternating freezing and thawing of water in joints and pores within rocks

Question 11

Define glacial surge

Answer 11

Relatively rapid but unusually short term movement of a glacier

Question 12

Define glacial system

Answer 12

Inter-relationships between components in a glacial environment often sub divided into inputs processes and outputs

Question 13

Define hanging valley

Answer 13

Tributary glacial trough perched up on the side of a main glacial trough and often marked by a waterfall

Question 14

Define ice wedge

Answer 14

V shaped ice filler feature formed by the enlargement of surface cracks by frost action. In time the cracks will become in filled with sediment

Question 15

Define internal deformation

Answer 15

Small scale inter and intra granular movement or deformation of ice crystals in response to gravity and mass

Question 16

Define kames

Answer 16

Mounds or hillocks found on the floor of a glacial trough formed by fluvioglacial deposition, e.g. Kame terraces formed by deposition of a marginal lake

Question 17

Define meltwater channels

Answer 17

Often narrow and steep sided valleys formed by torrents of meltwater at the end of a glacial period

Question 18

Define moraines

Answer 18

Glacial deposits comprising largely angular and unsorted debris transported on (supra glacial) and in (englacial) or under (sub glacial) the ice. Many types of moraine can be identified such as lateral, medial and terminal

Question 19

Define nivation hollows

Answer 19

Shallow hillside hollow resulting from a concentration of snow related processes such as frost shattering and slumping

Question 20

Define nivation

Answer 20

Snow related processes, such as weathering and mass movement that operate collectively to form shallow hollows in the landscape

Question 21

Define out wash plain

Answer 21

Often vast areas of well sorted and rounded sand and gravel deposits extending for some distance I. front of the glacier carried by meltwater

Question 22

Define patterned ground

Answer 22

Concentration of large stones on the ground surface usually associated with polygonal patterns of ice wedges often forming stripes on slops due to gravity

Question 23

Define periglacial

Answer 23

Environments experiencing long cold winters and short war. Summers typically with frozen ground but not covered by ice

Question 24

Define permafrost

Answer 24

Permanently frozen soil and rock a key characteristic of periglacial environments

Question 25

Define pingos

Answer 25

Ice cored mounds found in periglacial environments formed by freezing of sub surface water bodies and subsequent swelling of the ground surface

Question 26

Define pyramidal peaks

Answer 26

Remnant of intense glacial erosion taking the form of a very steep sided isolated peak

Question 27

Define rotational flow

Answer 27

Concave flow typically experienced In a corrie and responsible for increased erosion (over deepening)

Question 28

Define solifluction lobes

Answer 28

Extended lobes of saturated soil formed by solifluction on a hillside

Question 29

Define solifluction

Answer 29

Gradual downhill slumping of saturated soil and rock usually in summer when the upper surface zone melts and becomes heavy and waterlogged

Question 30

Define truncated spurs

Answer 30

Former interlocking spurs that have been eroded by a glacier to form a steep valley side

Question 31

Define warm based glacier

Answer 31

Glacier where the base temperature is high enough to enable meltwater to exist and therefore basal sliding to occur

Question 32

Name 3 pressures on Antarctica

Answer 32

Falling numbers of krill
General over fishing
Increasing levels of tourism

Question 33

What is the Antarctica treaty

Answer 33

International agreement 1959
Seven countries have made territorial claims to segments of Antarctica
Unprecedented agreement to preserve the continent
Tourism is controlled

Question 34

What makes Antarctica special

Answer 34

Remotest continent on earth
Coldest windiest least populated 
Second smallest
Distinctive features
Driest place on earth
Home to penguins seals and algae

Question 35

Beginning and end location of trans-Alaskan oil pipeline 1974

Answer 35

Prudhoe bay oil field - southern tanker port of Valdez

Question 36

Name already negative impacts on the Antarctica

Answer 36

Interference with migration of caribou
Interference with hunting
Threatening fragile marine ecosystems and fisheries through oil spills
35% traditional land grazing affected
In 2050 78% coastal ranges maybe unavailingly for use

Question 37

Other human developments in the article is…

Answer 37

Mining
hydroelectric power
Bombing ranges

Question 38

What are the recent developments in the tundra?

Answer 38

New roads have been constructed
Pipeline laid
Settlements established

Question 39

What is the back ground of indigenous people

Answer 39

Estimated 1.3million indigenous people
Live in Article and tundra environments
Lived sustainable, largely subsistence way of life for thousands of years
Depend on hunting gathering and herding for survival