Midterm 1 Ice & Sea Level

Question 1

What is a glacier?

Answer 1

A glacier is flowing body of ice due to (1) internal deformation and (2) basal sliding

Question 2

How do glaciers form?

Answer 2

Forms where winter snowfall is greater than summer melting

Snow piles up year after
year and compresses
into ice under its own
weight

Question 3

Ice from glaciers can be lost by (1) ______ and (2) ______ icebergs into ocean

Answer 3

melting, calving

Question 4

Sea ice is frozen ocean water already floating (not a glacier formed
from snow on land). Sea ice does ___ affect sea level

Answer 4

NOT

Question 5

Sea level has risen _ inches so far, likely a few feet by 2100

Answer 5

8

Question 6

Ice sheets take centuries to millennia to melt, so basically ____

Answer 6

forever

Question 7

Sea level components: mountain glaciers (feet), warming/expanding water (feet), ice sheets (200 feet)

Question 8

Ice sheet-climate feedback loops – ice-albedo feedback, meltwater to base (lubricates, flows faster),
melt floating ice shelf (lose buttressing effect, ice on land flows faster), melt ice sheet surface down into
lower/warmer atmosphere (speeds up melting), marine ice sheet instability

Question 9

Sea level rise not uniform around world

Answer 9

changing ice masses affect gravitational pull on ocean, deep
ocean conveyor belt tilts ocean surface, winds can pile water up in some areas and warmer water
expands/stands higher, northern regions still rebounding out of ocean from last ice age