Geography, Iceland Flashcards
Sparsely populated
Very few people per km2
Glacier
A large, thick ice mass formed by many years of snowfall that is compressed (squashed)
Tundra
A treeless biome which is almost permanently frozen.
Basalt
A black volcanic rock
Constructive plate margin
Where two tectonic plates move apart.
Magma
Molten rock underground (lava on the surface).
Shield volcano
A wide and low volcano formed by highly fluid lava.
Archipelago
A group of islands.
Food chain
A diagram which shows what organisms eat.
Freeze-thaw weathering
The breaking up of rock as water in cracks expands and contracts.
Zone of accumulation
Where snow falls and a glacier is formed.
Zone of ablation
The end of a glacier, where it melts.
Plucking
A type of erosion which occurs at the bottom of the glacier as rock is picked up by the ice.
Moraine
A pile of sediment and rock deposited by a glacier.
Till
Unsorted material which has been deposited by a glacier.
Corrie
A large hollowed-out depression (dip) found on the upper slopes of glaciated valleys.
Hanging valley
A smaller valley that joins the deeper U-shaped valley.
Geothermal energy
Energy made using the heat of magma near the surface.
Renewable
Will not run out.
Fetch
The distance the wind travels across water.
