Glaciation Flashcards
What is a Glacier?
A glacier is a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or over a wide area of land.
What is an Ice Age?
When a large area of the world stays below 0°C, allowing ice to stay all year round.
When did the last Ice Age end?
A. 180,000 years ago
B. 1,800 years ago
C. 18,000 years ago
D. 1.8 Million Years Ago
C.
What 3 processes are carried out by a glacier?
Erosion, Deposition and transportation
How do Glaciers form?
In very cold climates, snow piles up. The bottom layers are compressed into ice. As it piles up even more, the baby glacier will start to move downhill under the force of gravity.
What countries were covered in ice in the last ice age?
Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark
What is an Interglacial?
An Interglacial is a time between 2 consecutive ice ages.
Where can glaciers be found today?
In Antarctica and high up in mountains
What is an output
Something that depletes a glacier
What is an input?
A factor that adds material to a glacier
What is frost-shattering?
When water in cracks freezes, it expands and the rocks crack, when it melts the rock falls apart.
What types of moraines are found?
Terminal moraines, Lateral moraines, Medial moraines, Ground moraines and Recessional moraines
What are the characteristics of a U-Shaped Valley?
Misfit Streams, Truncated Spurs, Hanging Valleys
How is a corrie formed?
Snow Gathers in a hollow, turns to ice, plucks material from the ground, erodes the land, making it deeper.
What is an avalanche?
An avalanche is a mass of snow which travels quickly down a slope
What is an Arête?
A Ridge between two or more corries. Three back-to-back corries create a pyramidal peak
Where are Medial Moraines found
In the centre of a glacier, running down the middle
What are Drumlins
Large smooth mounds of deposited material that reaches >800 m in length and 50 m in height
Where can ground moraines be found
Scattered on the ground around where a glacier was
Where is a recessional moraine found
Where a glacier used to end
What causes an avalanche naturally
Ice melt beneath the snow, warm weather, heavy snowfall (increases pressure) and steep slopes
