Ice on the Land Vocab

Question 1

Abrasion (glacial)

Answer 1

A process of erosion in which rocks carried in the bottom of the ice wear away the surface rock over which the ice passes

Question 2

Arête

Answer 2

Sharp-edged two-sided ridge on the top of a mountain

Question 3

Basal Sliding

Answer 3

The act of a glacier sliding over the bed before it, due to meltwater under the ice acting as a lubricant

Question 4

Boulder clay (till)

Answer 4

Th name given to all materials deposited by ice, usually it is clay containing boulders of different sizes within it

Question 5

Corrie

Answer 5

A circular ‘armchair-shaped’ rock hollow high on a mountainside, with a steep back wall and a rock lip on the open side

Question 6

Drumlins

Answer 6

Egg-shaped hills made of boulder clay up to about 40m high and 400m long; many usually occur together forming a ‘basket of eggs’ scenery

Question 7

Erratic

Answer 7

Boulders found on the surface that are different from the rock below

Question 8

Firn

Answer 8

Crystalline or granular snow found on the upper part of a glacier, where it has not yet been compressed into ice

Question 9

Glacial trough

Answer 9

The flat-floored and steep-sided (U-shaped) valley formed by a glacier

Question 10

Ground moraine

Answer 10

Surface deposits left by glaciers and ice sheets; the surface formed is uneven and hummocky

Question 11

Hanging valley

Answer 11

A tributary valley left high above the main valley floor so that its stream flowing down the main valley sides falls as a waterfall

Question 12

Ice sheet

Answer 12

A mass of ice which covers all the land surface over a wide area and is more than 50,000 km2

Question 13

Ice cap

Answer 13

A mass of ice which covers an area less than 50,000km2

Question 14

Lateral moraine

Answer 14

Pile of scree and boulder clay deposited in a line along the sides of a valley

Question 15

Medial moraine

Answer 15

Pile of loose carried and deposited in the centre of the ice

Question 16

Milankovitch Cycles

Answer 16

A theory that describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth’s movements upon its cilmate

Question 17

Misfit stream

Answer 17

Small river which flows over the wide floor of a glaciated valley; its side is out of scale with that of the valley

Question 18

Moraine

Answer 18

All materials deposited after having been transported by ice

Question 19

Pleistcene

Answer 19

Geologists name for the last Ice Age when ice covered much larger areas of Europe, North America and Asia than its does today (1.8m-10,000 years ago)

Question 20

Plucking

Answer 20

A process of erosion in which blocks of rock are torn away from the bed rock as the ice moves away

Question 21

Pyramidal peak

Answer 21

Three-sided slab of rock which forms a mountain peak

Question 22

Ribbon lake

Answer 22

Long and narrow lake in the floor of a glaciated valley

Question 23

Valley glacier

Answer 23

A moving mass of ice confined within a valley

Question 24

Striations

Answer 24

Deep grooves and scratches on surface rocks made by the sharp edges of stones carried in the bottom of the ice

Question 25

Tarn

Answer 25

Circular lake in a corrie hollow eroded by a glacier

Question 26

Terminal moraine

Answer 26

Pile of boulder clay in a line across the valley or lowland, deposited by the ice at the furthest point reached by the glacier

Question 27

Truncated spurs

Answer 27

Higher areas on the straight rocky sides of the glaciated valley

Question 28

Rock basin

Answer 28

Hollow in the valley floor eroded by a valley glacier