Unit 1- Glaciers Flashcards
What is and ‘open system’?
Energy and materials move across its boundaries.
What is a ‘closed system’?
No transfer of energy or matter across the external boundaries.
Is the glacial system open or closed system?
Open system.
When is a glacier formed?
When both the majority of precipitation received is in the form of snow and when the total annual solar radiation is unable to melt the total annual snowfall.
What are the densities of the following?:
1) Snow
2) Firn
3) Glacial ice
1) 0.1g cm-3
2) 0.5g cm-3
3) 0.9g cm-3
What do glaciers tell us?
1) Present and past climate change
2) Pollution and seas levels
3) CO2 and O2 levels
4) How much of the planet’s landscape has been formed
What is a ‘glacial period’?
Periods where the Earth’s average temperature is much cooler than the average. Much of its surface is covered in ice that is advancing (growing in size).
What is an ‘interglacial period’?
When the Earth’s average temperature increases and the size and coverage of ice sheets decreases. There are still ice sheets, they’re just smaller.
What is an ‘input’?
Energy and matter that is transferred from neighbouring systems.
What is an ‘output’?
Energy and matter transferred to neighbouring systems.
What is a ‘store’?
The mass that holds the glacier.
What is a ‘throughput’?
The movement of material (ice, water and debris) downslope due to gravity.
What is ‘glacial milk’?
Meltwater, specifically at the snout, containing a lot of sediment which gives the water a grey-blue colour
Name some inputs.
-Snowfall
-Material from deposition, weathering and mass movement
-Thermal energy from the sun
-Kinetic energy from wind and glacial movement
-Potential energy from positions on slopes
Name some outputs.
-Deposition
-Evaporation
-Glacial and wind erosion from rock surfaces
-Calving ice (split and shed)
-Sublimation
-Debris when deposited
