✅🟢Glacial Landscapes In The UK Flashcards
What’s a glacier?
Landform of ice situated in a valley
Mass of ice moving very slowly down the valley
‘Tongue shape’
Feb by snow in cold mountain environment
Isolated rocks - erratic rocks
Snow accumulated and compresses to form ice
How does the glacier advance / retreat?
Based on the weather
Describe a glacial valley
U shaped
Straight steep sides
Truncated ‘cut off’ Spurs
Broad base
When did the last ice age in the UK occur?
18,000 years ago.
During this time, temperatures stayed low throughout the year and ice sheets and glaciers covered the north of the UK and other parts of Europe.
How do glaciers shape the land?
Through processes of: Erosion Weathering Transportation Deposition
What is abrasion?
Type of erosion:
As the glacier moves downhill, rocks that have been frozen into the base and sides of the glacier scrape the rock beneath like sandpaper, leaving scratches like striations.
What’s plucking?
Type of Erosion:
Backwall of the valley where it’s a bit steeper + any protruding rock
Rocks become frozen into the bottom and sides of the glacier. As the glacier moves downhill it ‘plucks’ the rocks frozen into the glacier from the ground.
What’s freeze thaw weathering?
Weathering
Water flows into cracks in the rock, then freezes and expands, widening the cracks. The ice thaws and the process repeats until the rock breaks apart.
What’s debris carried above glacier called?
Supraglacial material
What’s debris carried within glacier called?
Englacial material
What’s debris carried beneath glacier called?
Subglacial material
What’s basal slipping
Transportation
Occurs when the weight of the glacier causes pressure melting at its base creating a film of melt water that reduces basal friction and allows glacier to slide
What’s Internal deformation / creep
Transportation
Ice crystals move past eachother within the glacier. Central part of glacier is ‘plastic’ and softer
What’s rotational slipping?
Glacier in a hollow moves along a curved surface in a circular motion
What’s bulldozing?
Transportation
When the snout of a glacier melts and retreated and layer of sediment is left behind. When the glacier advances again it ‘pushes’ the material at the snout forwards
What causes ice to move at different speeds?
Steepness of the slope + angle - so gravity acts on the glacier speeding it up
The edges are subject to friction which uses energy slowing it down but the midfield / center doesn’t have this friction allowing it to move faster - differential rates of movement
What’s transverse crevasses?
Small cracks that cute across ice flow - evidence of movement
What a Corrie?
armchair-shaped hollow found on the side of a mountain. This is where a glacier forms.
How does a Corrie form?
Snow collects in preglacial hollows
Snow turns into ice and moves downhill
Freeze thaw weathering and plucking cut into the back wall making it steep and jagged
Abrasion underneath the glacier depends the floor to create a basin shape
A rock lip marks the place where deposition has occurred. (Ice thinners / slightly uphill so less energy)
When ice melts - water trapped by lip creating lake / tarn
What’s an arête?
narrow ridge of land that is created when two corries erode back towards each other
What’s a pyramidal peak?
three or more corries erode back towards each other, at the top of a mountain a pointed peak is left behind
What are truncated Spurs?
A rounded area of land at the edge of a U-shaped valley.
What is a glacial trough?
deep U-shaped valley formed by a glacier.
What’s a ribbon lake?
Long narrow lake found in glacial trough.
What are hanging valleys?
smaller valley which is located high above the main U-shaped valley.
What’s moraine?
material carried or moved by a glacier
What’s lateral moraine?
material deposited along both sides of the glacier.
Usually weathered material that has fallen from the valley sides above the glacier.
What’s medial moraine?
material deposited in the middle of the glacier.
Caused by lateral moraines of two glaciers when they meet.
What’s terminal moraine?
material deposited at the end of the glacier.
What’s the name given to all material deposited by a glacier?
Glacial till / Boulder clay
What’s an erratic?
Depositional Landform:
rocks that have been deposited by the glacier.
They are usually made of a rock type that would not be found in that area.
This suggests that erratics can be carried a long way from an area of different geology.
What’s a drumlin
Depositional Landform:
mounds of deposited moraine / elongated hill
They have a steep side and a sloping side. They can be small or large.
They are sometimes described as having a ‘basket of eggs’ topography because of the unusual landscape they create.
What’s the stops end of drumlin?
The steeper end of the drumlin
faces the direction the ice is coming from
What’s the lee slope of a drumlin?
The less steep side of the drumlin
Doesn’t faces the direction the ice is coming from
Do drumlins lie parallel to the direction of ice movement?
Yes
Why does deposition occur?
loss in energy of glacier which can be due to increased friction or a change in gradient (less steep).
Another way to describe This is by saying glaciers drop their basal debris load as a result of friction between the ice and the underlying geology.
Where do drumlins often occur
Near the snout of the glacier as it’s overloaded with sediment so more energy loss
Describe the inside of a drumlin
Some drumlins have a rock core around which till can accumulate uponThis hard rock centre is unable to be moved or fully eroded (but it can smoothen the rock which gives the drumlin its smooth exterior look) by the glacier as it has such little energy so it deposits it’s unsorted material around the hard rock centre, this creates a drumlin.
The interior composition of drumlins are able to vary. Some have unsorted cores of silts, sands, boulders (hard rock centre), whereas others have fluvial deposits indicating some may have been formed by fluvioglacial process rather than just glacial deposition alone.
What’s glacial out wash?
The sand and gravel deposited by the running melt water leaving the glacier.
What’s glacial meltwater?
As the glacier melts, the water carries fine material which is eventually deposited.
All of the material moved by the glacial melt water is called glacial drift or glacial till.
How’s material sorted - glacial meltwater?
The heavier particles of sand and gravel are deposited in the glaciated valley.
The lighter, finer particles such as clay, are deposited further away from the glacier and are deposited in the outwash plain.
What’s an out wash plain?
formed in front of a glacier and are where material is deposited over a wide area, carried out from the glacier by meltwater
Helvellyn- Lake District
One of England’s highest mountains around 950m tall.
Many of the landscape features visible around Helvellyn today were formed during the last ice age over 20,000 years ago.
Helvellyn glacial landscape examples?
Arêtes - striding edge / swirral edge
Red tarn Corrie
Ribbon lake in the U shaped valley
Drumlins example
Often found in large groups
Scotland / Glasgow - 180 drumlins
How does a truncated spur occur?
As the glacier moves down the valley it plucks the rock from beneath and those rocks then rub against the bed of the valley, eroding it further.
This deepens and widens the valley.
At the front end of the glacier it acts like a bulldozer, shifting and removing soil, plucking rock from interlocking spurs and truncating them.
How does a glacial trough occur?
distinctive U-shaped valleys with a flat floor and steep sides. The glacier widens, steepens, deepens and smoothes V-shaped river valleys
How does a ribbon lake occur?
lakes that collect from melt water and rain water after the glacier has melted.
During glaciations the glacier erodes some parts of the valley floor more than others. This could be because of varying strengths of the bedrock or because there is thicker ice in one region of the glacier than another or because there is more moraine abrading the ground in one region than another.
When the glacier melts water fills the depressions (holes) where the valley floor was eroded most.
How does a hanging valley occur?
Within glacial valleys there are main glaciers and smaller tributary glaciers (just like with rivers). The main glacier can erode its valley to a much greater extent because they are wider, deeper, have more mass and more moraine to use as erosive tools.
The tributary valley glaciers are smaller, have less mass and moraine hence erode their valley less.
This means that the main valley is deeper, wider and steeper, and this becomes really evident post glaciation, when the tributary glacier is left hanging high above the main valley.
When rivers return, they often form waterfalls in these hanging valleys.
Forestry in Glacial Landscapes
U shaped valley where soil is thicker + more fertile
Conifer plantation produces timber for timber industry
Pine trees are planted as they grow fast (soft wood)
timber used in construction / fencing = hardwood
Eg. Lake District - Hardknott
Tourism in glacial landscapes
U shaped valley / higher for hiking (hanging valleys / waterfalls)
Mountain landscapes (arêtes / waterfalls / tarns / carries / pyramidal peaks / u shaped valley - ribbon lakes)
Eg. Lake District- hellvellen - Red Tarn
Quarrying in glacial landscapes
Harder rock eg. granite = higher up
Softer rock eg. sandstone / limestone lower down
Granite = building
Quarrying obtains hard rock (highland) and soft rock (lowland)
Eg. Lake District
Farming in glacial landscapes
Sheep farming in glaciated highland
Agriculture (wheat / barley) in lowland - Ushaped valley
Sheep farming = highland as they’re good climbers
Crops = lowland as soil is more fertile
Sheep farming - Highland Lake District / Scotland
What’s conflict referring to when it’s related to land use?
Referring to different ways that groups of people want to use the land
Economic = jobs / businesses / infrastructure Social = education / wellbeing / housing vs farmland Environmental = conservation of habitat / woodland / rivers
Advantages of wind turbines in glacial landscapes
Sustainable
Green energy that’s renewable and non polluting
Uks windiest nation = reliable
High amount of every generated
Disadvantages of wind turbines in glacial landscapes
Birds killed in rotational Turbines
Visually polluting
Takes up farming land
Environmentally destructive
Humming noise
Disruptive building process
Can destroy habitat - reduce tourism
Advantages of forestry
Commercial enterprise - brings in employment and money to the area
Other types of agriculture are not profitable due to thin soil / steep slopes so it’s a good alternative
Provides timber for industry from a sustainable source
Trees have advantages such as carbon sink / store / reducing flooding
Disadvantages of forestry
Coniferous forest don’t support as many different species of wildlife as mixed woodland
Access may be resourced when timber is harvested which can restrict other land uses
Conifers May make landscape more unnantiral and uniform
Eyesore - lots of bare rock visible / disrupts natural feel / large lorries transporting timber = noisy
Example of wind farms in glacial landscapes
Kirk Stone Pass (Lake District)
Examples of tourist attraction in the UK (zip wire example)
Glenridding zip wire (Lake District)
Didn’t go forward as vast majority of people rejected the idea.
Social benefits of tourism
Honeypot site - attracts more people
Social disadvantages of tourism
Traffic congestion - noise + air pollution
Narrow roads / higher chance e of car accident + delays
Too many tourists - congested
Pressure on property - house prices rise
More vacant houses off holiday seasons - ghost town
Environmental issues - locals suffer issues they’ve not creates - litter / traffic congestion + puts future tourists off
Economic advantages of tourism
Honeypot site - More tourism = more money spent on economy
More money spent on pathways
Higher house prices - people who can afford give more money
Economic disadvantages of tourism
Traffic problems - less people want to go - less income
More tourist aimed shops - less for locals (supermarkets)
Higher house prices / more second homes may force locals out
Off season some shops won’t survive
Environmental disadvantages of tourism
Air / noise pollution from traffic congestion damage ecosystems
Honey pot - More litter / more traffic emissions / more congestion
Pressure on property - Less green space as more homes built
Footpath erosion / less fertile soil / loss of green space / loss of artic plants
Environmental advantages of tourism
Nature sites / habitats have to be preserved to attract more tourists
Management strategies or traffic problems
Speed Bumps
Parking lot outside village (park + ride schemes)
Double yellow / 1 way roads
Ambleside = transport hub / cycling
Management strategies for honey pot sites
Parking lots outside the centre of the village
Integrated transport systems
Management strategies for pressure on property
Local council builds more affordable homes
limit on people who have 2nd homes
Higher council tax on people who own second homes
Management strategies for environmental issues caused by tourism
Footpath erosion - draining + signs
more bins for litter
Describe how soil erosion occurs
Large number of hikers in heavy foot water straying from path in same place
Plant material is removed
Soil is exposed
Soil structure breaks down
Soil is vulnerable to wind and water
Erosion - unsightly / less habitat / flooding increases
Soil erosion management - Helvellyn
March 2012 - work done on final clime (striding edge) to direct people away from sensitive face of red tarn - erosion reduced to artic alpine.
Moving stones to create natural barriers - prevents people going to sensitive areas + prevents debris falling into sensitive areas
Signs to direct safe walking areas + prevents soil erosion
Path restoration methods - resurfacing rock - minimal habitat loss + paths pleasant to walk on. Prevents pigeon holes.
Pigeon holes regenerated by planting ontop of them (seeds)
Drains - prevent water damage. Drains are built into paths - prevents them from flooding = safe to walk on so less people stray from path
