Glaciers

I. Introduction
A. Definition - mass of ice, originating on land that formed by accumulation, compaction, and recrystallization of snow; and that flows or has flowed under the influence of gravity. 1. Average rate of movement = a few cm/day 2. Contain 2% of world's water B. A series of changes alters the original lightly packed snow to much more densely packed and cemented glacial ice. 1. Firn = granular recrystallized snow C. Winter snowfall exceeds the amount of snow that melts away during the summer. 1. These occur at high altitudes or high latitudes which are both COLD. 2. Snowfields (stretches of perennial snow) develop here a. Snowline = lower limit of snowfield

II.

Glacier classification: subdivided into 3 major categories

A. Valley or alpine glaciers - streams of ice flowing down valleys in the mountains. Variable length, width & depth B. Piedmont glaciers -glacier formed by the coalescence (i.e., merging) of 2 or more valley glaciers, which combine and move down onto the plains below. C. Ice Sheets - broad, mound-like masses of ice that tend to spread radially under their own weight. 1. Greenland & Antarctica are the only ones existing today and are often called continental ice sheets. a. 10% of Earth's land area today. b. Can be 2-3 miles thick. c. Ice shelf-glacial ice that has flowed out into a bay to form a flat mass of floating ice. 2. Ice cap - smaller than ice sheets and only cover uplands and plateaus.

III.

Movement of glaciers (Rates up to several meters/day)

A. When the weight of snow and ice is great enough the glacier starts moving downhill under the influence of gravity. This point is determined by the relationship between accumulation and wastage of the glacier.

1. Zone of accumulation - region of glacier above the snowline in which snow accumulates faster than it melts. 2. Zone of wastage - below the snowline where more melting than accumulation occurs. 3. Accumulation > wastage the glacier advances. B. Zones of movement 1. Zone of Fracture = Upper 30 - 60 meters = brittle behavior - the ice breaks rather than undergoing gradual permanent distortion and flow. 2. Crevasses (cracks) develop only in this zone. 3. Zone of Flow - Below the zone of fracture the pressures generated by the weight of overlying ice causes ice to behave plastically and to flow downhill. 4. In the zone of flow movement occurs by: a. Slow plastic flow occurs as layers of H2O molecules move past one another within the glacier. Causes distortions and folding of ice layers within glacier. b. Basal Slip - occurs as whole glacier moves across underlying terrain. c. Surge - rapid glacial movement that may originate through unusually rapid basal slip lubricated by liquid water.

IV.

Glacial erosive processes

A. Landsliding and avalanche provides a lot of debris to the lacier but the glacier also actively erodes material itself. B. Fractured and jointed underlying rock gives up large blocks by plucking. Glaciers loosen and lift blocks of rock incorporating them into the moving glacier. C. Glaciers erode by abrasion (grinding away at the rocks). 1. Rock flour - very fine particles of pulverized rocks that are often carried away from the front of the melting glacier by sediment-charged streams. 2. Rocks fragments carried along at the base of the glacier can scrape the underlying rock creating: grooves, striations and a polished shiny surface.

V.

Erosional features created by glaciers

A. Valleys carved by glacial erosion are characteristically U-shaped rather than Vshaped like stream valleys.

1. If these valleys are carved right down to the ocean and are later flooded by rising sea level they are called fiords. 2. Many large U-shaped glacial valleys are characterized by smaller hanging valleys along their walls. a. Often the source of spectacular water falls. B. At the head of a glaciated valley a steep-walled hollow called a cirque usually forms due to ice-plucking and frost action. A cirque is the basin from which the glacier flows. 1. A lake formed in the bottom of a cirque = tarn. C. Arete- long jagged, serrated ridge of rock formed by glaciers gnawing away at a mountain from two sides. D. Horn - spire of rock formed by a ring of glaciers gnawing away at a single high mountain from many sides.

VI.

Depositional features created by glacial activity

A. Drift - all deposits laid down directly by glaciers or as a result of glacial activity. B. Deposits of unstratified drift = till. 1. Nature and formation of till a. Particles ranging from ton-sized boulders to clay. b. Most deposited when rate of wastage begins to exceed rate of accumulation and material is just dumped out of the bottom of the glacier as it retreats. 2. Moraine - landform composed largely of till. a. Ground moraine - laid down underneath of the glacier as the main body of the glacier melts. b. End moraine - ridge of till marking a temporary stopping point of a glacier. c. Terminal moraine - ridge of till marking the utmost limit of a glacier's advance. It's "last end moraine". 3. Drumlin - smooth, elongate hill composed largely of till. a. Asymmetric profile with blunt, steep end pointing in the direction from which glacier came. b. 8-60 meters high and 0.5 - 1 km long 4. Erratic - glacially-transported boulder carried from its place of origin and left stranded on bedrock of a different composition. C. Stratified drift is ice-transported sediment that has been washed and sorted by meltwaters according to particle size.

1. Accumulates on the outwash plain at the terminus of the glacier. Vast apron of bedded sediment deposited by meltwater flowing from terminus of glacier to form braided channels. a. Kettle - basins or depressions on the outwash plain. Form when a block of stagnant ice becomes wholly or partly buried in drift and ultimately melts, leaving a pit in the glacial sediment. 2. Esker - winding, steep-walled ridges formed by streams running through tunnels beneath stagnant ice. 3. Kame - steep-sided hill or mound formed: a. by sediment deposited by meltwater in openings within, or depressions on top of, the ice. b. deltas or fans built outward from stagnant ice by meltwater streams. When the stagnant ice melts these various accumulations of sediment collapse to form isolated, irregular mounds.