Glacial landscapes Flashcards
What is the relief of land
Refers to the highest and lowest elevation points in an area. Typically mountains and ridges.
What is topography?
The natural features of land especially the shape of its surface.
What is altitude?
Height above sea level measured in metres or feet
What is land use?
The purpose or function of land for example pasture, grassland, retail
What are lowland areas?
Lowland are close to or below 200m above sea level. One example is the Fens in East Anglia
What are upland areas?
Uplands are normally made up of mountains or high hills. Normally they are ares over 600m above sea level. Examples include the Cumbria mountains in the Lake District.
What is the highest point in the Uk?
Ben Nevis at 4406 feet (1343m) located in Scotland.
What are the 2 longest rivers in the Uk?
River Severn (south west Uk) and river thames (flows through London)
When was the last ice age
22,000 years ago
How thick was the ice the last ice age.
3km thick
What is a glacial period
When the temperature has dropped significantly low and ice advances
What is an interglacial period?
When the temperatures are warmer for an extended period of time
What processes were used by the ice sheet to shape the Uk?
Erosion, transportation, deposition etc
What is the ISO static rebound?
When ice melts, the land rebounds up
What are glacial erratics?
Boulders/large sediment that had been carried by the ice left in (random) high altitude areas.
Describe the formation of a glacier:
- Over a year, fallen snow is gradually compacted into ice
- because each year new layers of snow bury and compress previous layers
- The compression forces the snow to re-crystalize, forming sugar sized grains.
- Gradually the grains grow larger and the air pockets between the grains get smaller, causing the snow to slowly compacts and increase in density.
- After about 2 winters the snow turns in firn/neve - a middle state between snow and glacial ice
- For most glaciers this process takes more than 10l years.
Describe freeze- thaw weathering:
Water enters crack in rock, when it freezes it pushes rock apart, the ice melts and big gap is left.
What is plucking?
Where a glacier moves over an area of rock and due to friction the glacier melts and water seeps into cracks below. The water freezes and the rock effectively becomes part of the glacier and is ripped out when the glacier continues to move forward.
What is abrasion?
Abrasion is where rocks at the bottoms of the glacier act like sand paper - grinding over the bedrock. This can polish rocks or create sharp grooves called striations.
As glaciers move they transport debris (…………..) along with them in various ways
topsoil
subglacial material =
material plucked or abraded from bedrock beneath the glacier
englacial material
some material falls into crevasses and is transported inside the ice
supraglacial material
some material falls onto the ice from surrounding mountain sides so is carried on top
what is till made of
angular rocks/boulders
sediment transported by ice is known as…
glacial till
= can be deposited to form a morraine
what is sediment carried by meltwater rivers called
outwash = more rounded due to attrition by river erosion