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Geography > Glaciers > Flashcards

Glaciers Flashcards

1
Q

How are glaciers formed

A

Many layers of snow - the accumulation of snow each year must be greater than the melting. The weight of the snow compresses other layers into névé and then glacial ice

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2
Q

What causes ice ages

A

Tectonic motion can impact water flow temperature
Earth orbit
Super volcanic eruptions
Meteor impacts

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3
Q

What features do you find in glaciated areas?

A

Mountain ranges
U shaped valleys
Sheer cliff faces
Big boulders called ‘erratics’
Waterfalls

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4
Q

How do glaciers erode the land

A

Ice contains rocks which act as sandpaper to abrade the bedrock

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5
Q

What does the Milankovitch Cycle mean?

A

Changes in the shape of Earths orbit around the sun determines the amount of incoming radiation. When the orbit is more elliptical, the amount of solar radiation at perihelion is around 23% more than aphelion

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6
Q

What is perihelion?

A

When the earth is closest to the sun during an elliptical stage of Milankovitch Cycles

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7
Q

What is aphelion?

A

When the earth is furthest away from the sun during an elliptical stage of the Milankovitch Cycle

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8
Q

What are 3 causes of ice age?

A

Difference in solar activity
Continental drift
Volcanic eruptions

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9
Q

How does solar activity cause ice ages?

A

If there are more sunspots, the Earth will be warmer due to solar flares

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10
Q

How does continental drift cause ice ages

A

Changes in ocean currents affect the weather. More ice = more albedo effect

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11
Q

What is the albedo effect?

A

When snow and sand reflect the sun rays back into space

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12
Q

How do volcanic eruptions cause ice ages?

A

Large ash clouds reflect sun rays back to space. Super volcanic eruptions can cool global temps my 5-15°C

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13
Q

How do volcanic eruptions cause ice ages?

A

Large ash clouds reflect sun rays back to space. Super volcanic eruptions can cool global temps my 5-15°C

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14
Q

What is the Pleistocene?

A

The most recent ice age - Last 2 million years

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15
Q

What are the temperature changes during the last 400,000 years

A

Long glacials (100,000 years)followed by short interglacials (20,000 years)

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16
Q

When was the last ice advance?

A

100,000 years ago

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17
Q

What is the Holocene?

A

The ice age we are in now

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18
Q

What is a system?

A

A series of elements that are linked

19
Q

What are the inputs of a glacier?

A

Precipitation
Rock debris
Avalanches
Show
Sunlight

20
Q

What are the outputs of glaciers?

A

Water vapour
Icebergs
Meltwater
Glacial deposits

21
Q

What are the stores of glaciers?

A

Sediment within the glacier
Ice

22
Q

What are the processes of glaciers?

A

Ice movement
Transportation
Erosion
Iceberg carving
Melting water

23
Q

What is the name of the compressed snow?

A

Firn

24
Q

How do glaciers move?

A

Basal sliding- the ice moves due to it melting and the weight of all the ice makes it move downhill
Internal deformity- When temps are too low for basal sliding, it moves due to the gradient of the slope

25
Q

What is freeze thaw weathering?

A

When water enters a rock and freezes so it expands. This increases the pressure inside the rock so it slits in half

26
Q

How do glaciers erode the land?

A

Plucking
Abrasion

27
Q

What is plucking?

A

Tearing away blocks of rock as a glacier moves. These blocks of rock had been frozen to the bottom of the glacier where water had entered joints in the rock and become frozen

28
Q

What is abrasion in glaciers?

A

When rock fragments which have frozen to the base and the back of glaciers scrape the bed rock as the ice move. Smaller rock particles have a sandpaper effect on the rocks over which the ice passes while the sharp edges of large rocks make deep groves called striations

29
Q

How to glaciers transport material?

A

Move inside the ice
On top of the ice
Dragged along the base of the glacier

30
Q

How and why do glaciers deposit materials?

A

During the summer months, the ice retreats due to it melting. This then deposits the rocks that were inside the now melted ice. Happens at the snout of the glacier

31
Q

How are corries formed?

A

In the northern hemisphere, snow falls on the north of hollows. This forms glacial ice which eroded the slope and begins to rotate within the hollow, plucking rocks and forming a wider and deeper bowl. The ice spills out as it loses power which forms a rock lip

32
Q

What is an arête and how is it formed?

A

It’s a sharp, knife shaped ridge which are between 2 corries or glacial troughs. Pyramidal peaks form at the steep back wall of 3 or more corries

33
Q

How are truncated spurs formed?

A

When a glacier entered a V- shaped valley with interlocking spurs, the ice fills it and has more power to erode. Instead of winding round the spurs, the ice just cuts through the surroundings to form U-shaped valleys with truncated spurs. These have lots of plucking and abrasion and can contain misfit streams

34
Q

What are hanging valleys?

A

A tributary valley with the floor at a greater height than the main channel which it flows to. They are formed when 2 glaciers of different power and size meet, causing the one with less power to create a smaller U-shaped valley which is hanging above the larger one

35
Q

What are ribbon lakes and how are they formed?

A

Glacial lakes which are on soft rock. They form at the bottom of glacial troughs due to alternating bands of soft and hard rock. The soft rock erodes faster to form a rock basin and the hard rock act as dams which end up filling the basin with water

36
Q

What is lateral moraine?

A

ridge of materials that run along the edges of a glacial trough close to the valley side. They fall off the sides of the valley due to freeze thaw weathering and falls onto the glacier to be deposited when it melts

37
Q

What is medial moraine?

A

When glaciers meet, 2 lateral moraines merge to form a large ridge of rock debris

38
Q

what is ground moraine?

A

Material that gets lodged under the glacier. Lots is produced when glaciers disappear entirely see to climate change. Most of the UK is ground moraine

39
Q

What is terminal and recession moraine?

A

The enormous ridge of material that gets bulldozed by the snout of the glacier. Recession moraine is formed the same way but is further up the valley

40
Q

What are drumlins and how are they formed

A

They are smooth egg shaped mounts of glacial till up to 1km long, 500m wide and 50m tall
Said to be formed due to a glacier becoming overloaded and depositing large volumes of till. The ice then flows over the deposited material and shapes it into an egg shaped mound, pointing in the direction of the flow of ice

41
Q

What are erratics?

A

Pieces of one type of rock that has been carried by a glacier and been deposited in an area of different rock type e.g. granite erratic in an area of limestone geology

42
Q

What economic activity is there in uk glaciated areas?

A

Farming - lots of sheep, deer, buffalo and ostrich farming
Forestry - Pines are grown for commercial purposes
Quarrying - Mine rocks to lower areas for walls and roofs
Tourism - Attractive landscape and activities such as hiking
Electricity generation - dams built on the impermeable rock for hydro electric power

43
Q

What land use conflicts are there in glaciated areas?

A

2 conflicting priorities or incompatible views
Commercial forestry isn’t good for wildlife or flood risk
Wind turbines produce energy but ruin landscape
Farmers need to protect land and animals but tourism needs to stay
Building reservoirs force relocation

44
Q

What are the economic opportunities in snowdonia?

A

Farming employs 1000 and uses 80% land
Forestry takes up 17% land(36400 hectares)
Quarrying used to employ 17000 produce over 485000tons of slate now below 40 people
Tourism generates £395 million per year employs 8000
Electricity employs 200

Geography (7 decks)

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