Geo102 Part18 Glaciers BLP 2020

GEO 102: The Earth
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GEO 102
The Earth
PART 18
Glaciers and Ice Ages
Essentials of Geology, 3rd edition, by Stephen Marshak Chapter 18: Amazing Ice: Glaciers and Ice Ages
The Theory of Glaciation
 Louis Agassiz, a Swiss geologist, observed glaciers
 saw glaciers act as agents of landscape change
 carried sand, mud, and huge boulders
 then dropped these materials, unsorted, upon melting
 realized (1837) glaciers could explain erratics

 boulders in fields made of rock from far away
The Theory of Glaciation
 Agassiz proposed (1837) glaciers had covered Europe
 Ice sheets covered land
 Ice carried and dropped…
large boulders (erratics)
from far away
unsorted sediment, clasts
of all sizes
16.1 The material that is left behind when
glaciers melt is
a. unsorted sediment
b. well-sorted sand
c. only boulders
d. mostly fine-grained silt and clay
Ice Ages
 Glaciers presently cover ~10% of Earth’s land surface
 Greenland, Antarctica
 During ice ages, coverage
expanded to ~30%
 The most recent ice age
ended ~11 ka
 covered New York, Montreal, London, Paris
 Ice sheets were hundreds to thousands of meters thick
16.2 At the present, glaciers cover about
________ of the surface of the continents.
a. 1%
b. 5%
c. 10%
d. 20%
e. 30%
Ice: The Water Rock
 Natural ice is a type of rock
 Igneous – A frozen pond
 Sedimentary – Weakly-cemented fallen snow
 Metamorphic – Deformed, plastic, glacial ice
Formation of Glacial Ice
 Snow is transformed into ice
 snowflakes accumulate
 snow is buried by later falls
 Compression expels air (most)
 burial pressure causes
recrystallization
 Snow turns into granular firn
 Over time, firn grains grow into
interlocking crystals of ice.
Forming a Glacier
 Three conditions are necessary to form a glacier:
 cold local climate (polar latitudes or high elevation)
 abundant snow; more snow must fall than melts
 snow accumulates, not removed by avalanches or wind
Forming a Glacier
 Elevation needed for glacier formation varies by latitude
 In polar regions, glaciers form at sea level
 In equatorial regions, glaciers form above 5000m (16000 ft)
 This elevation is marked by the “snow line”
Glaciers
 Thick, flowing masses of recrystallized ice
 last all year long
 flow via gravity (“permanent” snowfield does not flow)
 Two categories of glaciers: mountain and continental
Mountain Glaciers
 Flow from high to low elevation in mountain settings
 Include a variety of settings
 Cirque glaciers fill mountain-top bowls
 Valley glaciers flow like rivers down valleys
 Mountain ice caps cover peaks and ridges
 Piedmont glaciers spread out at the end of a valley
Mountain Glaciers: movement
 Glaciers flow downhill due to gravity
Continental Glaciers
 Vast ice sheets covering large land areas
 Ice flows outward from thickest part of sheet
 Two major areas of continental glaciers remain on Earth:
 Greenland
 Antarctica
East
West
Continental Glaciers: movement
 Continental glaciers flow away from thickest ice
Glacier Movement: flow
 Two types of mechanical behavior:
 Brittle – Uppermost 60 m
tension initiates cracking of the ice, forming crevasses
crevasses may open and close with movement
 Plastic deformation – Lower than 60 m
ductile solid flow occurs in deeper ice
break and reform bonds, modify grain size and shape
16.3 The presence of a crevasse indicates:
a. the glacier is retreating

b. brittle deformation at the surface of a glacier
c. plastic deformation of the glaical ice
d. flow by basal slip
e. sublimation is occuring
16.4 The flow of glacial ice under generally
solid conditions via the breaking and
reforming of chemical bonds:
a. brittle flowing
b. basal sliding
c. plastic deformation
d. compaction
e. calving
Glacier Movement: flow rates
 flow varies within a glacier widely (10 to 300 m/yr)
 slope angle: Steeper = faster.
 basal water: wet-bottom = faster
 friction slows ice at margin
Glacier Movement: advance and retreat
 Glacier profile reflects net addition or removal of ice
 Zone of accumulation: area of net snow addition
 Colder temperatures, more precipitation
 not all of the new snow melts each year
 Zone of ablation: area of net ice loss

 melting and sublimation
 boundary: Equilibrium Line
16.5 The boundary between the zone of
ablation and zone of accumulation is
called:
a. the terminus
b. a meltwater pool
c. the equilibrium line
d. the basal crevasse
e. the brittle/pastic transition
Glacier Movement: advance and retreat
 advance
 accumulation
exceeds ablation
 Eq. line moves
lower
 toe moves away
from accumulation
zone
 retreat
 ablation exceeds
accumulation
 toe moves toward
accumulation zone
16.6: In a heavy snow year that sees an
expansion of the zone of accumulation, the
line of equilibrium …
a. increases in elevation
b. retreats away from the toe
c. remains constant
d. decreases in elevation
e. retreats uphill
Ice in the Sea
 In polar regions, glaciers flow out over ocean water
 tidewater glaciers – valley glaciers entering the sea
 ice shelves – continental glaciers entering the sea
 sea ice – non-glacial ice formed of frozen seawater
Ice in the Sea
 Large areas of the polar seas are covered with ice
 sea ice is floating: melting does not raise sea level
 Global warming appears to be reducing ice cover
Glacial Effects
 Glaciers are important forces of landscape evolution
 produce distinctive
landforms through
 Erosion
 Transport
 Deposition
Glacial Effects: Erosion
 Glaciers pick up and carry blocks of rock, sand
 abrade bedrock Lake Louise
 produces very fine “flour” Alberta
silt and clay
 transport sediment
Glacial Effects: Erosion
 Glacial abrasion – A “sandpaper” effect on substrate.
 Substrate is pulverized to fine “rock flour”
 abrasion by sand in moving ice: polish bedrock, striations
Glacial Effects: erosional landforms
 distinctive erosional features of glaciated areas
 cirques
 tarns
 aretes
 horns
 U-shaped valleys
 hanging valley
 fjords
16.7: All of the following are glacial terrain
features except _____.
a. cirques
b. V-shaped valleys
c. fjords
d. U-shaped valleys
e. polished surfaces on bedrock
 U-shaped valleys
 Glacial erosion creates
a distinctive trough
 Unlike V-shaped fluvial
(stream) valleys
 hanging valley
 formed by smaller, tributary
that feeds main glacier
 larger main glacier cuts,
erodes, faster
 Fjords: U-shaped glacial valley flooded by the sea
 aided by post-glacial sea-level rise
Glacial Effects: sediment transport
 Glaciers carry enormous amount of sediment, all sizes
 Where glacial ice melts, this material is dropped
Glacial Effects: sediment deposition
 Many types of sediment derive from glaciation
 Called glacial drift, includes:
 glacial till
 erratics
 glacial marine sediments
 glacial outwash
 glacial lake-bed sediment.
 loess
 sediment deposited directly

by ice is unsorted
Glacial Effects: sediment transport
 Moraines – Unsorted debris
dumped by a glacier
 Lateral – Forms along the flank
of a valley glacier.
 Medial – Mid-ice moraine from
merging lateral moraines
 End morraine: at the glacial toe
Glacial Effects: sediment deposition
 Glacial till – Sediment dropped by glacial ice
 Consists of all grain sizes
 Unmodified by water, hence…
Unsorted
Unstratified
 Accumulates…
Beneath glacial ice
At the toe of a glacier
end moraine
Along glacial flanks
lateral moraine
Glacial Effects: Sediment Deposition
 Erratics – boulders and cobbles dropped by glacial ice
 rocks differ from underlying bedrock
 Often, have been carried long distances in ice
 scattered throughout SBU campus
 Glacial outwash – sediment transported in meltwater
 Muds are removed
 Sizes are graded and stratified
 Grains are abraded and rounded
 mostly sand and gravel

 covers much of Long Island
south shore
 Loess – Wind-transported silt
 Glaciers produce abundant
amounts of fine sediment
 Strong winds off ice blows
the rock flour away
 settles out near glaciated
areas as loess deposits
16.8: Which of the following best
describes glacial till?
a. finely laminated layers of mud

b. well-sorted sand
c. a broad area of gravel and sandbars
d. poorly sorted sediment, with clasts of all sizes
e. wind-deposited clay and silt
Glacial Effects: depositional landforms
 Glacial sediments create distinctive landforms
 end and terminal moraines
 drumlins
 kettle lakes
 (eskers)
 End moraines form at the stable toe of a glacier
 Terminal moraines form at the farthest edge of flow
 Harbor Hill moraine (North Fork)
 Ronkonkoma moraine (South Fork)
16.9: The pile of sediment deposited at
the terminus (toe) of a glacier is called:
a. a varve
b. lateral moraine
c. drumlin
d. end moraine
e. dropstone
 Drumlins – Long, aligned hills of molded till
 parallel ice-flow direction
 kettle lakes and holes from stranded ice blocks
 outwash surrounds stranded ice
 common feature on Long Island
Lake Ronkonkoma
16.9: Which of the following is a glacial
landform?
a. drumlins
b. outwash plain
c. kettle hole
d. moraines
e. all of the above
Glacial Effects: subsidence, rebound
 Subsidence and rebound
 Ice sheets depress the lithosphere into the asthenosphere
 crust slowly subsides as asthenosphere flows
 After ice melts, the depressed lithosphere rebounds slowly
 continues today in some areas
Glacial Effects: Sea Level
 Sea level – Ice ages cause sea level to rise and fall
 Water is stored on land during an ice age – sea level falls
 Deglaciation returns water to the oceans – sea level rises
 Sea level ~100 m lower at last glacial maximum
 If ice sheets melted
coastal regions would
flooded (60 m)
Glacial Effects: landscape change
 glaciation changes river systems, forms proglacial lakes
 ice and glacial drift block preexisting drainages
 after melting, altered river courses remain
 massive floods:
 breached ice dams can
drain lake abruptly
Lake Agassiz
Lake Missoula (Montana)
– channeled scablands
(E. Washington state)
Pleistocene Ice Ages
 Young (< 1.8 Ma) glacial
remnants are abundant
 Northern North America
 Scandinavia and Europe
 Siberia
 Landscapes in these
regions are clearly glacial
 Ice sheets were 2 to 3 km thick in accumulation centers
 Near centers, ice scoured bedrock, leaving striations
 Ice sheets thinned outward, depositing debris
 Climate belts were shifted much further south
 shorelines were farther seaward
 many short-term advances and retreats (interglacial)
 glaciations have also occurred in earlier Earth history
Causes of Ice Ages
 Long-term causes: set the stage for ice ages
 Plate tectonics – Controls factors that influence glaciation
Distribution of continents toward high latitudes
Sea-level decrease by mid-ocean-ridge volume changes
changes in ocean currents (e.g., Antarctica isolation)
 Atmospheric chemistry
Changes in greenhouse
gas concentrations
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Methane (CH4)
weathering, volcanism,
CO2 extracting organisms
Causes of Ice Ages
 Long-term causes: set the stage for ice ages
 Recent thoughts – reduced CO2 by rock weathering
ice ages at times with
continental collisions
near equator
enhanced weathering of
mafic rock in tropics
consumes CO2
reduced CO2 leads
to cooling
Macdonald et al. (2019)

Science 364:181
Causes of Glaciation
 Short-term causes: govern glacial advances and retreat
 Milankovitch hypothesis: climate variation over 100-300 Ka
forced by changes in orbital geometry
eccentricity (~ 100,000 years)
Tilt of Earth’s axis varies from
22.5o to 24.5o (~41,000 years)
Precession: Earth’s axis wobbles
 affects insolation (sunlight at surface)
Causes of Glaciation
 Short-term causes: govern glacial advances and retreat
 Changes in albedo (reflectivity): positive feedback
glacial advance increses albedo, leads to further cooling
 Oceanic thermohaline circulation changes
 modification of atmospheric CO2 concentrations
16.10: Growth of continental glaciers has
which of the following effects?
a. uplift of the lithosphere by elastic rebound
causes subsidence
b. rise in sea level
lowers sea level
c. formation of large lakes
d. decrease of Earth's albedo
increases albedo (reflectivity)
e. All of the above
Glacial Reprise?
 Are we living in an interglacial, will ice advance?
 Possibly. Interglacials have been lasting ~10,000 years
 It has been ~11,000 years since the last deglaciation
 A cool period (1300 to 1850) resulted in the “Little Ice Age”
 current warming trend has caused glaciers to recede
 But, humans are affecting CO2 concentration
Glacial Reprise?
 Worldwide, most glaciers are retreating
Carroll Glacier, Alaska

1906
2004
GEO 102
The Earth
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GEO 102: The Earth

Glaciers and Ice Ages

 realized (1837) glaciers could explain erratics

 This elevation is marked by the “snow line”

 Two categories of glaciers: mountain and continental

a. the glacier is retreating

 Zone of ablation: area of net ice loss

 sediment deposited directly

 mostly sand and gravel

a. finely laminated layers of mud

Macdonald et al. (2019)

Carroll Glacier, Alaska

Global Change in the Earth System

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