Glaciers

Explain how glaciers move.

Compare and contrast glacial erosion and
deposition.

Glaciers

Glaciers
Glacier: Large mass of ice and
snow moving on land under its own
weight.

Glaciers
Glaciers are agents of erosion.
Glacial erosion and deposition change
large areas of Earths surface.
As glaciers move forward over land they
can transport huge volumes of sediment
and rock.

Glaciers

How do glaciers move?

The weight of the glacier
causes the ice to flow outward
like pancake batter on a
griddle.

Glaciers
Plucking: process that adds gravel,
sand, and boulders to a glaciers
bottom and sides as water freezes
and thaws, breaking off pieces of
surrounding rock.

Glaciers

These plucked rock fragments and sand at a

glaciers base scour and scrape the ground
below like sandpaper against wood.
Glacial striations.

Glaciers
Glacial grooves occur when bedrock is
gouged deeply by rock fragments.

Glaciers
When glaciers melt they can no longer
carry much sediment.
The sediment is deposited on land.
As the glacier retreats it leaves a
mixture of boulders, sand, clay and silt
called till.

Glaciers
Till deposits can cover huge areas of land.
Enough till has been left behind in the U.S.
to fill valleys completely.
Iowa, Montana, parts of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois and New England contain till.

Glacial Till

Glaciers
Moraine deposits: Rocks and soil
deposited at the end of a glacier
creating a ridge.
These deposits occur much like a grocery
store conveyor belt as it piles up items at its
end.

Glaciers

Outwash: material deposited by the

meltwater from a glacier.

Eskers: outwash deposits resulting

in winding ridges of gravel and
sand.

Types of Glaciers
Continental Glaciers:
Cover 10% of the Earth.
Mostly near the poles.
Huge masses of ice and snow.

Types of Glaciers
Continental glaciers in the past covered
28% of the Earth.
This period was known as the Ice Age.

Types of Glaciers
Glaciers have advanced many times
during the last 2 million to 3 million years.
The last major advance of glaciers was
about 18,000 years ago.

Types of Glaciers
Valley Glaciers: Occur in high
mountains where the average
temperature is low enough to prevent
snow from melting.
Valley glaciers grow and creep along.

Types of Glaciers
Valley glaciers erode mountains creating
valleys.
Glacially eroded valleys are U-shaped.
Stream eroded valleys are V-shaped.

Types of Glaciers

Valley glaciers

Glaciers
Question: How do glaciers cause
erosion?
Rock fragments and sand scour the
soil and bedrock eroding the ground
below.

Glaciers
http://www.unique-southamerica-travelexperience.com/glaciers-national-park.html
http://theresilientearth.com/?
q=content/himalayan-glaciers-not-melting
http://www.grid.unep.ch/glaciers/graphics.ph
p
http://www.sup.org.uk/moving_mountains.ht
m