Ice On Land Flashcards
What’s an input
Comes from avalanches on sides of glaciers and precipitation of snow
Where was ice age in Britain
Ice extended to the line connecting the Severn estuary to the Thames estuary
What’s storage in a glacier
Ice accumulates and is compressed into ice and stored
What’s an output
Meltwater and evaporation
Zone of accumulation
Snow builds up at a certain point as more snow is gathering than melting
If the zone of accumulation exceeds the zone of ablation
than the glacier will move advance as it has expanded
If the zone of ablation exceeds the zone of accumulation
Then the glacier will retreat as it is shrinking
In the summer a glacier
Retreats
In the winter a glacier
Advances
Most of the worlds glaciers are
Retreating
What’s the snout of a glacier
Front end of it
Why’s the snout blue
High pressure
Air has pushed out
Very compact ice
This makes it blue
Ice in the middle of the glacier
Firn ice which is grey
3 forms of glacial erosion
- Free thaw action
- Abrasion
- Plucking
What is plucking
Glacial ice freezes onto rock on the valley base and when the glacier moves it pulls bits of rocks away with it
What is abrasion
Rock which has become integrated into the glacier (moraine) wears away at the valley sides and floor
Examples of glacial transfers
Advancing
Retreating
Meltwater
6 glacial landforms
- Corries
- Arêtes
- Pyramidal peaks
- Glacial troughs
- Truncated Spurs
- Hanging valleys
Formation of a corrie
- Ice collects in natural hollow shady side of mountain
- As more snow collects it compacts the snow beneath turning into ice
- Ice will rotate in hollow which which will widen and deepen it with plucking and abrasion
- As it starts to move out of the hollow it forms and armchair shape where it is spilling out and it’s heightened by deposition of moraine
Welsh name for corries
Cwms
French name for corries
Cirques
Lakes in corries
Tarns
Example of a corrie
Cwm idwal in North Wales