Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

Chapter 12
Glaciers and Glaciation

True / False Questions

1. The two types of glaciated terrain on the Earth's surface are alpine and valley.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

2. Where glaciers exist they are far more effective agents of erosion, transportation, and
deposition than running water.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

3. Unsorted and unlayered rock debris carried or deposited by glaciers is called till.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

4. The compacted mass of granular snow, transitional between snow and ice, is called firn.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

5. Glaciers are part of the hydrosphere.

TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

6. Glaciers with a positive budget are advancing glaciers.

TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

7. The thicker part of a glacier will flow slower than where it is thinner.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

8. Glaciers in temperate climates may have crevasses that extend to their base.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

9. A large trunk glacier erodes downward more rapidly and carves a deeper valley than do
smaller tributary glaciers.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

10. A U-shaped valley (in cross section) is characteristic of glacial erosion.

TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

11. During the most recent ice age, sea level was at least 100 meters lower than at present.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

12. Two layers of sediment representing one year of deposition in a lake are called a varve.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

13. An esker is a long sinuous ridge of ice.

FALSE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

14. Glaciers in temperate climates tend to move slower than those in colder regions.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

15. Support is growing for the idea that a late Precambrian ice sheet was so extensive that the
surface of the world ocean was frozen.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 3. Apply

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

16. Tillite is lithified till.

TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

17. An end moraine marks the final edge of a receding glacier just before the glacier melts
away entirely.
FALSE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

18. Bodies of till shaped into streamlined hills are called drumlins.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

19. Striations and grooves in bedrock indicate the direction of ice movement.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

20. The primary control of glacial-interglacial episodes seems to be variation in the Earth's
orbit and inclination to the sun.
TRUE

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

Multiple Choice Questions

21. ___ are the product of past glaciations.

A. The Ohio and Missouri Rivers
B. The Appalachian Mountains
C. The Great Lakes
D. The Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea
E. The high plains

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

22. The upper part of a glacier, the part with perennial snow and ice, is called the __.
A. zone of accumulation
B. zone of wastage
C. zone of ablation
D. recharge zone
E. discharge zone

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

23. Glaciers can be considered as _______ of fresh water for future use.
A. climate characteristics
B. erosional basins
C. indicators of climate change
D. deposits
E. artesian aquifers

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

24. Above the rigid zone, glacial ice movement is due to __.
A. sliding along faults in the ice
B. passive riding of the ice on the glacier
C. sliding along the base of the glacier
D. opening of cracks or crevasses
E. melting

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

25. If all ice sheets were to melt, sea level would _____.
A. rise by as much as 40 meters
B. fall by as much as 17 meters
C. rise by over 60 meters
D. fall by over 130 meters
E. remain unchanged

Bloom's Level: 3. Apply

Topic: Glaciers

26. A worldwide decrease of at least _____C in temperature would bring about a new glacial
age.
A. 50
B. 25
C. 10
D. 5
E. 1

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

27. ____ are landscape features that indicate a mountainous area has been glaciated.
A. Cirques, horns, and arêtes
B. Drumlins, eskers, and kames
C. Horns, drumlins, and tillite
D. Crevasses, cirques, and kames
E. Erratics, moraines, and kettles

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

28. The longest ice core drilled was obtained at ____, Antarctica, in the 1990s.
A. McMurdo
B. Vostok
C. Palmer
D. the south pole
E. the geographic center

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

29. Under the influence of gravity a glacier moves down valley and eventually __.
A. flows back toward its source area
B. ablates
C. evaporates
D. goes underground
E. accumulates

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

30. The central portion of a valley glacier moves _____ the sides.
A. slower than
B. faster than
C. at the same rate as

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

31. When an ice block that was buried in sediment finally melts a depression called a ___
forms.
A. arête
B. horn
C. drumlin
D. roche mountonnée
E. kettle

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

32. A(n) _____ -shaped valley (in cross section) is characteristic of glacial erosion.
A. S
B. U
C. V
D. Y
E. I

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

33. Sharp ridges called ___ separate adjacent glacially carved valleys.
A. tarns
B. cirques
C. arêtes
D. cairns
E. moraines

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

34. A large trunk glacier carves a deeper valley than smaller tributaries. After the glacier
disappears the tributary valley remains as _____ high above the main valley.
A. a fiord
B. a hanging valley
C. an arête
D. a cirque
E. a roche mountonnée

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

35. A(n) _______ is a mass of ice that is not restricted to a valley but covers large areas of
land.
A. ice sheet
B. moraine
C. tarn
D. arête
E. col

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

36. Bodies of till shaped into streamlined hills are called ___.
A. kames
B. moraines
C. drumlins
D. eskers
E. kettles

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

37. A(n) ______ is a steep-sided half-bowl shaped recess carved at the head of a mountain
glacial valley.
A. fiord
B. hanging valley
C. arête
D. cirque
E. roche mountonnée

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

38. A(n) _____ is a coastal inlet that is formed by a drowned glacial carved valley.
A. nunatak
B. fiord
C. inselberg
D. monadnock
E. hanging valley

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

39. A(n) ____ is a long sinuous ridge of water-deposited cross-bedded and well-sorted
sediment deposited by a stream that flowed within or under a glacier.
A. tarn
B. moraine
C. drumlin
D. esker
E. varve

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

40. What caused the glacial ages?

A. changes in the atmosphere
B. changes in the positions of the continents
C. changes in circulation of sea water
D. All of the above have contributed to the glacial ages.
E. The cause is unknown at this time.

Bloom's Level: 3. Apply

Topic: Glaciers

41. The _____ is the end of a glacier.

A. ablation limit
B. snow line
C. terminus
D. zone of ending

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

42. Open fissures called ___ develop in the brittle surface ice of glaciers.
A. crevasses
B. cirques
C. joints
D. arêtes
E. thalwegs

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

43. A glacier will flow faster where it is steeper and _____.

A. thinner
B. has more firn
C. younger
D. thicker
E. older

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

44. If a moving glacier reaches a body of water ______ float free.

A. crystals
B. icebergs
C. calves
D. infants
E. end moraines

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

45. The down-valley part of a glacier is the ____, where melting, evaporation, and calving
take place.
A. zone of accumulation
B. zone of replenishment
C. zone of ablation
D. recharge zone
E. discharge zone

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

46. ___ moraines are elongate low mounds of till that form along the sides of valley glaciers.
A. Lateral
B. Proximal
C. Distal
D. Medial
E. Terminal

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

47. A(n) ___________ is an ice-transported boulder that was not derived from the underlying
bedrock.
A. clast
B. esker
C. nunatak
D. erratic
E. inselberg

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

48. Two layers of sediment resulting from one year's deposition in a glacial lake are called
___.
A. cross beds
B. ripples
C. varves
D. contourites
E. turbidites

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

49. The sediment deposited by debris-laden melt water is called _______.

A. fluvial
B. alluvial
C. discharge
D. outwash
E. pediment

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

50. A(n) _____ is the sharp peak that remains after cirques have cut back into a mountain on
several sides.
A. arête
B. horn
C. inselberg
D. cirque
E. tarn

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

51. The boundary between the zone of accumulation and the zone of ablation is an irregular
line called the _____.
A. equipotential surface
B. equilibrium line
C. balancing line
D. break-even curve
E. snow line

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

52. Where tributary glaciers come together the adjacent lateral moraines join to form a
______ moraine.
A. lateral
B. distal
C. proximal
D. medial
E. terminal

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

53. A(n) ___ is a lake occupying a bedrock depression excavated by a glacier.

A. kettle
B. pothole
C. blowout
D. monadnock
E. tarn

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

54. The theory of _____ states that at times in the past, colder climates prevailed during which
much more of the land surface was glaciated than at present time.
A. ice accumulation
B. glacial ages
C. climate change
D. Milankovitch
E. Vostock

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

55. The grinding of rock against rock by a glacier produces a very fine sediment called ____.
A. tillite
B. till
C. rock flour
D. rock dust
E. glacier mist

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

56. ______ gives us more evidence of the beginning and ending times of glacial episodes than
the direct study of glacial deposits.
A. Location of meteorites on the Antarctica ice sheet
B. Sea level changes
C. Folklore
D. Deep ocean sediment
E. Satellite imagery

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

57. ______ first suggested that glacial/interglacial episodes are related to variation in solar
radiation cycles.
A. C. Plummer
B. A. Einstein
C. M. Milankovitch
D. I. Newton
E. D. Carlson

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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Chapter 12 - Glaciers and Glaciation

58. If the terminus of a glacier remains stationary for a few years a distinct _______ may
form.
A. roche mountonnée
B. ground moraine
C. recessional moraine
D. lateral moraine
E. medial moraine

Bloom's Level: 2. Understand

Topic: Glaciers

59. Once a glacier is gone the land begins to uplift slowly to its pre-glacial height, a process
called ____.
A. metamorphism
B. subduction
C. volcanism
D. crustal rebound
E. ocean basins

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

60. As ice retreats by melting back, the rock debris carried by the glacier is deposited to form
a relatively thin layer of till called a(n) ___________.
A. esker
B. ground moraine
C. drumlin
D. end moraine
E. erratic

Bloom's Level: 1. Remember

Topic: Glaciers

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