Glaciers Flashcards
What is the snow line?
The snow line is the lower edge of the snowfield that divides the snow covered area and the melted snow area
How does the snowing change with elevation and latitude?
The higher the latitude the lower the elevation
What is the zone of accumulation and how is it related to the snow line
The Zone of accumulation is the part of a glacier above the snow line, where the snow accumulates to increase the glaciers mass
What is the zone of wastage?
the place below the snow line where the glacier ice melts evaporator or flows away
What is a glacier?
A glacier is a thick slab of densely packed ice that does not melt completely away during the summer 
What is an ice cap??
An ice cap is a smaller ice sheet that is usually 160 km and is usually located in Northern Canada 
What is a continental glacier?
A continental glacier is a thick ice sheet that covers most of continent or a large island 
Where are the two continental glaciers found?
The two continental glaciers are found in Greenland and Antarctica
What are ice sheets?
permanent layers of ice covering an extensive tract of land
What is an alpine glacier?
Alpine glacier is a long, narrow river of ice located in a high valley 
What is plucking?
Plucking is the process of a glacier freezing and attaching to rocks below it and plucking them out
What are erratics
Erratics are boulders that have been moved and sit on on different bedrock by the process of plucking
What is a boulder train?
A boulder train is a group of a erratics from the same distant, bedrock source that can follow back to it
What is calving?
Calving is the process by which large chunks of ice break off
What is a cirque
A cirque is a basin that forms as a result of glacial erosion at the head of a U-shaped valley that can be found in Norway or Alaska
What is a drumlin?
A drumlin is a long, streamline hill composing of Till
What is an esker
And esker is a long winding ridge that is deposited by streams flowing a glacier 
What is a fjord?
A fiord is a place where the sea enter the glaciate Valley, due to the glaciers, eroding their path to see level when they start retreating, the sea enters the glaciated Valley 
What is a hanging valleys?
A hanging valley is a small valley that often enters a glaciated valley from high on its side that has a waterfall. 
What is a horn?
A horn is a slender spire of three or more cirques that encircle a mountain peak
What is a kettle?
A kettle is a hole that outwash plain are pitted with a kettle lake has water
 What is a lateral moraine?
A lateral moraine is debris deposited along the sides of a glacier 
What is till
Till is the unstratified kind of deposit in which boulders, pebbles and soil drop down randomly 
What is a medial morain
A medial moraine is the lateral moraines of two valley glaciers, emerging that join 
