ICE AND

GLACIERS
BY: IVANNE BENHUR M. BRIONES
ICE
WHAT IS ICE?
It is a solid substance produced by the
freezing of water vapor or liquid water at
temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F), water
vapor develops into frost at ground level
and snowflakes in clouds.

Ice is abundant on Earth’s surface

particularly in the polar regions, it is a
common form of precipitation and
deposition and plays a key role in Earth’s
water cycle and climate.
PHYSICAL
PROPERTIES OF ICE
While most substances decrease in volume
when changing from the liquid state to the solid
state, the property of water is that it is less
dense in the solid state than in the liquid state.
This implies that ice is lighter than an equivalent
quantity of liquid water, therefore ice floats on
water.
PHYSICAL
PROPERTIES OF ICE
When water freezes its volume increases, in
nature, this process is very important : the
pressure of water freezing inside small cracks in
a rock can be so great that the rock breaks into
small fragments. This process, called cryoclastic
weathering (from Greek cryo, kryos : cold and
clast, klastos : broken). It is responsible for
mechanical weathering of rocks in the high
mountains, and produces large stretches of
sharp debris, which are a characteristic feature
in mountain landscapes.
ICE, MINERAL OR
NOT?
Ice is a naturally occurring compound with
a defined chemical formula and crystal
structure, thus making it a legitimate
mineral. Its only limitation, in comparison
to all other minerals, is that it is not stable
at room temperature.
GLACIERS
WHAT IS GLACIER?
Glaciers are made up of fallen snow that,
over many years, compresses into large,
thickened ice masses. Glaciers form when
snow remains in one location long enough
to transform into ice.

What makes glaciers unique is their ability

to move. As the ice accumulates, it begins
to flow downward under its own weight.
Since ice melts under pressure, the ice at
the base of typical glacier is actually
melting causing it to slide down. This
whole process is taking place at what we
called the plastic zone where ice no longer
breaks but rather bends or flows.
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CREVASSE
KRUH · VAS
A crevasse is a deep crack, or fracture,
found in an ice sheet or glacier, as
opposed to a crevice that forms in rock. It
lies on the brittle zone of the glaciers.
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STRUCTURE OF
GLACIER

Glacial budget - describes how ice

accumulates and melts on a glacier
which ultimately determines whether
a glacier advances or retreats.
 STRUCTURE OF
GLACIER
Zone of accumulation – The region near the
head of the glacier where snow is converted
to firn and then ice. Here the rate of annual
snowfall is greater than the rate of melting.

Zone of ablation – this is where ice is lost by

melting, evaporation or calving. More ice
melts than accumulates as snow during the
year

Equilibrium line – The equilibrium line (or

snowline, also called the firnline) marks the
boundary between the zones of accumulation
and ablation.
TYPES OF
GLACIERS
There are two general types of
glaciers – alpine glaciers and ice
sheets.

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ALPINE GLACIERS
form in mountainous areas either at high
elevations or near cool and wet coastal
areas
CIRQUE
Cirque glaciers are named for the bowl-like
hollows they occupy, which are called cirques.
Typically, they are found high on
mountainsides and tend to be wide rather
than long.
VALLEY
Commonly originating from mountain glaciers
or icefields, these glaciers spill down valleys,
looking much like giant tongues. Valley glaciers
may be very long, often flowing down beyond
the snow line, sometimes reaching sea level.
ICE CAPS TIDEWATER
an ice mass that covers less than 50,000 km2 Tidewater glaciers are valley glaciers that flow
of land. They are domes that spread in all all the way down to the ocean.
directions. Ice caps form primarily in polar and
sub-polar regions that are relatively flat and
high in elevation.
PIEDMONT
occur when steep valley glaciers spill
into relatively flat plains and merge at
the base of mountains, where they
spread out into bulb-like lobes.
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CONTINENTAL
GLACIERS
thick accumulations of ice that occupy a
large geographical area. The main ice
sheets on the earth today are located on
Greenland and Antarctica. Antartica holds
the largest chunk of ice on Earth, its
western portion alone contains enough ice
to raise the sea level by more than 3
meters
GLACIAL
LANDFORMS
Glaciers are moving bodies of ice that can
change entire landscapes. They sculpt
mountains, carve valleys, and move vast
quantities of rock and sediment. Landforms
created by the action of glaciers are called
Glacial Landforms
ARETES HORN
A thin, crest of rock left after two adjacent Results when glaciers erode three or more
glaciers have worn a steep ridge into the arêtes, usually forming a sharp-edged peak
rock
CIRQUES GLACIAL ERRATIC
Concave, circular basins carved by the base Glaciers can pick up chunks of rocks and
of a glacier as it erodes the landscape. transport them over long distances.
GLACIAL EROSION
• Plucking - Glacial Erosion Meltwater at the • Abrasion - Rocks carried along at the base
base of a glacier may work its way into of the glacier may grind and polish the
cracks and freeze. Pieces of bedrock may be bedrock
worked loose and picked up by the moving
• Glacial Striation – grooves and striations
glacier in a process is called plucking.
caused by rock fragments along with the
• Glacial Flour – Silty powder that develops as moving glacier.
glaciers ground down rocks and pebbles
under them
GLACIAL
DEPOSITS
Glaciers pick up rock fragments from the
underlying bedrock and from the valley
walls. Glaciers carry the debris without
tumbling or sorting. The deposited debris is
called glacial till (angular, poorly sorted,
and unlayered). When till becomes lithified,
it is called tillite
MORAINE
Material left behind by a moving glacier.
This material is usually soil and rock. Just
as rivers carry along all sorts of debris and
silt that eventually builds up to form
deltas, glaciers transport all sorts of dirt
and boulders that build up to form
moraines.
 TYPES OF MORAINE

• Lateral moraine – Forms along the sides of a

valley glacier as rocks fall from the steep
cliffs of glacial valleys.
• Medial moraine- Form where two tributary
glaciers come together and adjacent lateral
moraines join.

• End moraine- A type of recessional moraine that

forms at the terminus of a glacier during glacial
recession as debris piles up long the front of the
ice. They tend to be crescent shaped.
• Terminal moraine- Special type of end moraine
that marks the farthest extent of the glacier.
ICE AGE
GLACIATION
A glaciation (or ice age) occurs when the
earth’s climate is cold enough that large ice
sheets grow on continents. There have
been four major, well documented
glaciations in earth’s history: one during
the archean-early proterozoic (~2.5 billion
years ago), another in late proterozoic
(~700 million years ago), another in the
pennsylvanian (323 to 300 million years
ago), and the most recent pliocene-
quaternary glaciation
CAUSES OF
GLACIATIONS
escribe the collective effects of changes in
the Earth's movements on its climate over
thousands of years. The term is named for
Serbian geophysicist and astronomer
Milutin Milanković.
Precession - Wobbling of Earth’s axis (with
a span of 21,000 years)

Obliquity – angle of Earth’s axis (with a

span of 41,000 years)

Eccentricity – variations of the distance

from the sun in Earth’s orbit around the
sun
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