Glaciers Glaciers are a part of both the hydrologic cycle and rock cycle Glacier – a thick mass of ice that forms over land from the compaction and recrystallization of snow and shows evidence of past or present flow

Glaciers Types of glaciers Valley, or alpine glaciers – form in mountainous areas

Glaciers Types of glaciers Ice sheets or continental glaciers Large scale e.g., Over Greenland and Antarctica Other types Ice caps and piedmont glaciers

Glacier Movement Types of glacial movements Zone of fracture Plastic flow Slipping along the ground Zone of fracture Uppermost 50 meters Crevasses form in brittle ice

Crevasses

Glacier Movement Zone of accumulation – the area where a glacier forms Zone of wastage – the area where there is a net loss due to melting

Glacial Erosion Glaciers erode by Plucking – lifting of rock blocks Abrasion Rock flour (pulverized rock) Striations (grooves in the bedrock)

Glacial Erosion Landforms created by glacial erosion Glacial trough Hanging valley Cirque Arête Horn Fiord

Erosional Landforms Created by Alpine Glaciers

The Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps

Glacial Deposits Glacial drift All sediments of glacial origin Types of glacial drift Till – material that is deposited directly by ice Stratified drift – sediment deposited by meltwater

Glacial Deposits Depositional features Moraines – layers or ridges of till Types of moraines Lateral Medial End Ground

End Moraines of the Great Lakes Region

Glacial Deposits Depositional features Outwash plain or valley train Kettles Drumlins Eskers Kames

Glacial Depositional Features

Ice Age Glaciers Glaciers of the past Ice Age Began 2 to 3 million years ago Division of geological time is called the Pleistocene epoch Ice covered 30 percent of Earth’s land area

Extent of Ice Age Glaciation

Ice Age Glaciers Effects of Ice Age glaciers Migration of animals and plants Rebounding upward of the crust Worldwide change in sea level Climatic changes

Ice Age Sea Level

Causes of Ice Ages Successful theory must account for Cooling of Earth, as well as Short-term climatic changes Proposed possible causes Plate tectonics Continents were arranged differently Changes in oceanic circulation

Late Paleozoic Ice Age

Causes of Ice Ages Variations in Earth’s orbit Milankovitch hypothesis Shape (eccentricity) of Earth’s orbit varies Angle of Earth’s axis (obliquity) changes Axis wobbles (precession) Changes in climate over the past several hundred thousand years are closely associated with variations in Earth’s orbit

Orbital Variations

Deserts Any situation with a water deficiency Distribution and causes of dry lands Global distribution of air pressure and winds Deep interiors of landmasses Presence of high mountains