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What is a glacier?
A glacier is a large, perennial accumulation of crystalline ice, snow, rock, sediment,
and often liquid water that originates on land and moves down slope under the
influence of its own weight and gravity.
Typically, glaciers exist and may even form in areas where:

1. mean annual temperatures are close to the freezing point

2. winter precipitation produces significant accumulations of snow
3. temperatures throughout the rest of the year do not result in the complete loss of
the previous winter’s snow accumulation
Over multiple decades this continuing accumulation of snow results in the presence of a
large enough mass of snow for the metamorphism from snow to glacier ice process to
begin. Glaciers are classified by their size (i.e. ice sheet, ice cap, valley glacier, cirque
glacier), location, and thermal regime (i.e., polar vs. temperate). Glaciers are sensitive
indicators of changing climate.

Conditions:
• What Conditions Are Necessary for a Glacier to Form?
Three conditions are necessary to form a glacier:

(1) Cold local climate (polar latitudes or high elevation).

(2) snow must be abundant more snow must fall than melts and

(3) snow must not be removed by avalanches or wind.

• What conditions are necessary for a glacier to form?

What conditions are necessary for formation of a glacier? For a glacier to form
temperatures must be low enough to keep snow on the ground year-round. Further
moisture is required – brought by moisture-laden winds. Also, a lot of snow is needed –
snow that does not melt away in the summer.

• What are glaciers and how are they formed?

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 temperature does it have to be for a glacier to form?

Temperatures in glaciers and ice sheets vary in space and time. Temperate glaciers have
temperatures at or close to 0°C while the upper part of the Antarctic ice sheet may be as
cold as -40 to -60°C.
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• What needs to happen for a glacier to form a lake?

Glacial lakes typically form at the foot of a glacier. As glaciers move and flow, they erode the
soil and sediment around them leaving depressions and grooves on the land. Meltwater
from the glacier fills up the hole making a lake.

• How is a glacier formed?

Where and how do glaciers form? Glaciers form in places where more snow falls than melts
or sublimates. As the layers of snow pile up the weight on the underlying snow increases.
Eventually this weight packs the snow so tightly that glacial ice is formed.

• Which is one place that glaciers are formed?

Most of the world’s glacial ice is found in Antarctica and Greenland but glaciers are found
on nearly every continent even Africa.

• How are glaciers formed?

Glaciers begin forming in places where more snow piles up each year than melts. Soon
after falling the snow begins to compress or become denser and tightly packed. It slowly
changes from light fluffy crystals to hard round ice pellets.

• Under what conditions will the front of a glacier remain stationary under what
conditions will the front of a glacier remain stationary?
Under what conditions will the front of a glacier remain stationary? Glacial fronts remain
stationary when melting and snow accumulation are equal.

• What factors does the work of glacier depend on?

Glaciers require very specific climatic conditions. Most are found in regions of high snowfall
in winter and cool temperatures in summer. These conditions ensure that the snow that
accumulates in the winter is not lost during the summer. Such conditions typically prevail in
polar and high alpine regions.

• What conditions cause glaciers to grow larger and advance?

Glaciers advance and retreat. If more snow and ice are added than are lost through
melting calving or evaporation glaciers will advance. If less snow and ice are added than are
lost glaciers will retreat. In this zone the glacier gains snow and ice.

Glaciation:
As glaciers move across a landscape, they alter the terrain and carve out unique formations.
This process is called glaciation, and it is responsible for many of the most recognizable
landscapes on Earth.
Glaciation is a process the glaciers are formed and earth’s surface is covered by ice. Sea level will
go down and snow deposits on the two poles. This process will occur at low temperature.
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Glaciers are large bodies of ice that move over Earth’s surface. A glacier is formed as snow
accumulates over time and turns to ice, a process that can take more than a hundred years.
Once a glacier has formed, it moves very slowly, at a rate of years, or even decades; some
glaciers are frozen solid and do not move at all. The world’s fastest glacier, Jakobshavn
Glacier in Greenland, moves at a rate of about 40 meters (130 feet) per day. When a glacier
does move, it is often downhill due to gravity. As the glacier slides over Earth’s surface, it
erodes its surface by polishing bedrock, pushing soil, grinding up rock, and digging into the
ground. Through this process, called glaciation, glaciers carve out unique landscapes like the
U-shaped valley of Lake McDonald Valley in Glacier National Park, Montana, United States.

Deglaciation:
Deglaciation is the melting of glaciers or a decrease in ice sheets. While deglaciation
helped mark the end of the last ice age, glacial retreat in the 21st century helps support the
scientific theory of global warming.

Deglaciation refers to the retreat or melting of ice sheets and glaciers. The last period of
significant deglaciation marked the end of the most recent ice age, about 8,000 to 17,000
years ago.
Glaciers retreat when ice mass is lost through the melting of ice or through sublimation, the
process by which ice evaporates. Several factors impact the rate of deglaciation. A rise in
carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere results in an increase in global temperatures. This
warming is considered a primary cause of deglaciation in the 21st century. Such global
warming, coupled with diminished yearly snowfall, causes glaciers to retreat faster than
they can be replenished. This can result in significant glacial retreat, such as when the
Greenland glacier lost more than 10 billion tons of ice in one day in August of 2019.
Deglaciation can have two major effects. First, glaciers shrink in size as the ice mass
decreases. Then, much of this meltwater runs off into the ocean, causing a global rise in sea
levels.
Glaciers are remnants of the last ice age, which ended, at the latest, 8,000 years ago. They
contain clues embedded in ice, like frozen bubbles of ancient air, that provide scientists with
evidence of past climate changes. Scientists have used what they have learned from the last
period of deglaciation to help predict the future of Earth’s glaciers. They have noticed that
in recent decades, rates of glacial retreat have increased, releasing tons of ice in the form of
water each year. If these trends continue, scientists believe that glacial melt will result in the
loss of major frozen reservoirs of freshwater and a minimum of a 1.1-meter (3.5-foot) rise in
sea level by the end of the 21st century.

The Ice Age and Glaciers:

The Ice Age:
The Ice Age, scientifically known as the Pleistocene Epoch, spanned two million years and
ended about 10,000 years ago. The glaciers of this time period, often referred to as
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continental sheets, often extended and retreated into the northern region of the United
States. This is mostly seen throughout the New England states and the Midwest (Florida
Museum of Natural History, 2004). The glaciers of this period deposited sediments that are
the first well-documented sediments since 280 million years ago. Pre-Illinoian glaciers,
previously known as the Nebraska and Kansan Stages (named after the states in which their
deposits were first found), greatly disrupted drainage patterns and modified the landscape
to what we more commonly known today (Hansen, 1997).

Glaciers:
Glaciers are these huge masses of ice carved out great pits of more ice that scrubbed the
land as they moved slowly along. When the glaciers melted, water filled those depressions/
basins they had scraped, forming lakes. Glaciers also carved deep valleys and deposited
large quantities of earth, pebbles, and boulders as they melted. These materials sometimes
formed dams that trapped water and created more lakes (NatGeo, 2012).

Before glaciation took place, the western and southern halves of Ohio were drained by the
mighty river Teays (pictured above). The Teays River flowed through multiple states which
helped keep the flow of its drainage in Ohio. However, “the earliest glacier blocked the
north-westward-flowing Teays River and its numerous tributaries [created] a 7,000-square-
mile lake in southern Ohio and adjacent parts of Kentucky and West Virginia.” This lake
eventually overflowed the drainage which established the drainage system of streams and
rivers into a larger lake (Hansen, 1997). This provides evidence of glacial impact on Lake Erie
because without that blockage, that basin/lowland would never have filled up, nor would
the drainage system of all the little streams and rivers have been established.
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Glacial Deposits:

Glacial shifts, or Glacial Deposits, are the sediments that are left behind by ice sheets and
melted water. They consist of boulders, cobbles, sand, silt, and clay that have scraped
alongside the landscapes as the ice moved. Evidence of this is due to glacial striations which
are the scratches in the bedrock made by the rocks that were frozen into the glacier (The
Geological Society). Glacial sediment that varies in size from boulders to clay that are
deposited directly by ice is called till and till is deposited directly at the bottom of the
oncoming ice or the melting of stagnant ice (pictured below) (Hansen, 1997).

Because of the direction of the glaciers, the glacially related sediments vary greatly in size.
Their range is from zero molar units to 60 molar units. These sediments remain closer to
zero along Ohio’s southern shore of Lake Erie (Geo Framework, 1991).

What causes glacial–interglacial cycles?

WE are currently living in an interglacial period of the Quaternary ice age, known as
Holocene. We are actually in the middle of one of Earth’s FIVE major ice ages (Huronian-
billion years ago, Cryogenian- million years ago, Andean-Saharan, Karoo and Quaternary)
that started 2.5 million years ago and is marked by alternative glacial and interglacial
periods.

“Interglacial period is the warmer period of time between ice ages.”

Glacial advancement occurs in the ice age. Large, continental ice sheets in the Northern
Hemisphere have grown and retreated many times in the past. The most recent glacial
period occurred around 11,500 years ago. Since then, Earth has been in an interglacial
period called the Holocene. Glacial periods are colder and generally drier than interglacial
periods. No one knows for sure how long the present interglacial period will last. Scientists
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suggested that the current interglacial might last tens of thousands of years. The people
who may have been living in North-central North America, Canada, Russia in 20,000 years
ago saw ice and snow the year round as that was the time of the last major ice age. This was
the period when most of north-western Europe was buried beneath hundreds of feet thick
sheets of ice. But it was not bitter cold. The average temperature was only 10 to 12 degrees
lower than it is today. Snow piled up years after years as there was not enough heat
available in the warm months to melt away the ice and snow.

Classification:
• Continental Glacier:
Continental glaciers are those vast masses of ice sheets covering stretches of land, mainly
found in Antarctica. Such glaciers flow over large areas that are unconfined, where they
bury the landscapes underneath.
The more ice it deposits, the more accumulation occurs, and the force applied on the snow
is equally distributed over the surface to flatten the landscape. The ice sheets spread over
miles and are around 3000 meters or more in thickness.
Where are Continental Glaciers Found?
The big continental glaciers are mostly found in Antarctica and Greenland. The glaciers
found in these places are almost 3,500 meters in thickness. Dome-shaped and circular ice
caps are more significant than the ice fields but are smaller than ice sheets. Various smaller
ice caps outlets can flow from the ice shields. Continental glaciers are even found in the
Arctic Circle.
Types of Continental Glaciers:
There are primarily three types of continental glaciers, namely ice caps, ice sheets, and
outlets.
Ice Sheets
The ice sheet is the one that covers more significant areas of almost 50,000 sq. Km.
Greenland and Antarctica are examples where you will find ice sheets. Ice sheets in
Greenland are nearly 1,710,000 sq.kms, covering 80 percent of the total area and are about
3 kilometers in thickness. The ice sheet found in Antarctica are spread almost 14 square
kilometers and is the most massive single ice sheet of the world. Nearly 98% of ice sheets
cover Antarctica, which has a thickness of 4.98 kilometers.

Ice Caps
Ice caps are dome-shaped masses that stretch to 50,000 km of land. Although found in
mountainous regions, ice caps could be termed as continental glaciers since they are not
confined to smaller areas only. The green lakes and the coastal waters are formed as a
result of the fine sediments being eroded by glaciers.
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• Valley/Alpine Glacier:
Valley glaciers are streams of flowing ice that are confined within steep walled valleys,
often following the course of an ancient river valley. The downward erosive action of the
ice carves the valley into a broad U shape, in contrast to the steeper V shape that is
produced during the early stages of erosion by rivers. A U shape valley with a flat floor is
good evidence of the past glaciation of an area.

• Valley glaciers usually start life in either corries or ice sheets. Glacial ice flowing
downhill from either of these sources will follow any existing valleys or easy routes,
eroding and enlarging them as it moves.
Often several corrie glaciers will combine to feed a single valley glacier. In the
photograph below, three small corries are feeding a small valley glacier.
• In large systems, valley glaciers may join and form larger glaciers with much greater
erosional power than they had as smaller individuals. As the main glacier erodes its
valley downwards more quickly than surrounding valleys, they are left behind, finally
becoming hanging valleys.

• Rock debris falls from the steep valley walls and litters the glacier surface. This
occurs particularly along the edges, where rock debris builds up and is known as
lateral moraine. Where two glaciers meet and flow into each other, the two edges
where the meeting occurs become the centre of the new glacier. The two lateral
moraines combine to form a medial moraine.
• From the glacier snout, meltwater flows down the valley within braided river
systems. Vast quantities of eroded material are transported by these fast-flowing
streams. Material moved away from the glacier in this way is called fluvioglacial,
distinguishing it from material deposited at the site of the glacier. Deposits left in
situ by retreating glaciers are called till deposits.
• Braided glacial streams are unstable, frequently altering their course and bed shape.
In winter, when they and their glacial source freeze, they may stop flowing. During
the spring thaw and hot summer, they may become raging torrents capable of
moving rocks the size of family cars!
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• Ice Burg:
An iceberg is ice that broke off from glaciers or shelf ice and is floating in open water.
To be classified as an iceberg, the height of the ice must be greater than 16 feet above sea
level and the thickness must be 98-164 feet and the ice must cover an area of at least 5,382
square feet.

There are smaller pieces of ice known as “bergy bits” and “growlers.” Bergy bits and
growlers can originate from glaciers or shelf ice, and may also be the result of a large
iceberg that has broken up. A bergy bit is a medium to large fragment of ice. Its height is
generally greater than three feet but less than 16 feet above sea level and its area is
normally about 1,076-3,229 square feet. Growlers are smaller fragments of ice and are
roughly the size of a truck or grand piano. They extend less than three feet above the sea
surface and occupy an area of about 215 square feet.
Icebergs are also classified by shape, most commonly being either tabular or non-tabular.
Tabular icebergs have steep sides and a flat top. Non-tabular icebergs have different shapes,
with domes and spires.

Glacial Erosion
Glaciers erode the underlying rock by abrasion and plucking. Glacial meltwater seeps into cracks of
the underlying rock, the water freezes and pushes pieces of rock outward. The rock is then plucked
out and carried away by the flowing ice of the moving glacier (Figure below). With the weight of the
ice over them, these rocks can scratch deeply into the underlying bedrock making long, parallel
grooves in the bedrock, called glacial striations.

Mountain glaciers leave behind unique erosional features. When a glacier cuts through a ‘V’ shaped
river valley, the glacier pucks rocks from the sides and bottom. This widens the valley and steepens
the walls, making a ‘U’ shaped valley (Figure below).
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Erosional Features:
Although glaciers only cover about 10% of the Earth’s surface today, scientists estimate that
millions of years ago, almost the entire surface of our planet was under ice and snow.
Today, the erosional and depositional landforms left behind by these glaciers make the
above fact evident. The study of these glacial landforms allows scientists to learn about the
history of the Earth. It also helps them to predict future events related to glacial action on
the planet.
Some of the most important glacial erosional landforms are as follows:

• Cirque
A cirque, also known as a corrie, is a valley resulting from glacial erosion. It is shaped like an
amphitheater with an opening on the downhill side and a steep cupped section with cliff-
like slopes on three sides. The highest of these sides is called the headwall. The floor of this
valley is bowl-shaped and receives the bulk of the impact of the ice flows from multiple
directions and the accompanying rock particles and other debris. Cirques formed by glacial
erosion are found in mountains in different parts of the world. The Upper Thornton Lake
Cirque in the US national park of North Cascades is an example of a cirque.

• Cirque Stairway
A series of cirques or glacially eroded rock basins arranged one above the other at different
elevations, is called a cirque stairway. The Zastler Loch is one of the best-known examples of
a cirque stairway. It is located in Germany’s Black Forest where it lies below the summit of
the forest’s highest mountain of Feldberg.

• U-Shaped Valleys
U-shaped valleys are glacier carved landforms that exhibit a characteristic U-shape. These
valleys have a flat, rounded bottom. Their slopes are steep and roughly straight. These U-
shaped valleys are formed by the scouring action of glaciers as they flow down slopes. After
the glacier thaws or recedes, the rocky valley floor becomes visible. Small boulders called
glacial till that were transported with the glacier often remain dispersed throughout the
valley floor. U-shaped valleys can be seen in mountainous regions like the Himalayas and
the Alps. The Nant Ffrancon Valley in Wales is a typical example of such a valley.
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• Arête
A narrow ridge of rock between two valleys is called an arête. The feature is usually formed
as a result of glacial action. When two glaciers erode two parallel U-shaped valleys or two
glacial cirques headwards, the ridge in between them stands out as an arête. The Clouds
Rest is an example of an arête located in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.

• Roche Moutonnée
A rôche Moutonnée, also known as sheep rock, is formed by glacial action on the bedrock. It
results in the formation of a rounded knob shaped mountain. The gentle upstream slope of
the feature has a polished and striated surface formed by glacial scouring. The downstream
slope, on the other hand, is formed by glacial scouring. It has a jagged, steep, and irregular
surface. The ridge between these two slopes is perpendicular to the glacial movement.

• Glacial Striations
When glaciers move, sand grains and bedrock at the base of such glaciers create striations in
the form of gouges and scratches. When glaciers recede, such striations become visible on
the bedrock. One of the best examples of glacial grooves can be seen on the Columbus
Limestone in the Kelleys Island in Ohio. One of the grooves here is 400 ft long, 35 ft deep,
and 10 ft in depth.

• Glacial Horn/Pyramidal Peak/Nunatak

When multiple glaciers divulge from a central point by eroding cirques, the sharply pointed
and angular ridge remaining in between the cirques is called a glacial horn. A pyramidal peak
is the most extreme form of a glacial horn. Mount Matterhorn in Zermatt is an example of a
pyramidal peak. A nunatak is also formed by a similar glacial erosional activity. It is a rocky
outcrop located in an ice field or surrounded by glaciers that remain bare as its jagged and
angular structure prevents the accumulation of ice. Nunataks are thus easily identifiable
glacial erosional features. Greenland’s Queen Louise Land is an example of densely
clustered nunataks.

• Trim Line
A trim line is a sharp line on the hillside that marks the boundary between the poorly
vegetated terrain that was previously covered under glacial ice and the well-vegetated
terrain on the opposite side of the line. Trim lines are easily distinguished from the rest of
the terrain due to the distinct color of the ground and the differential distribution of
vegetation on either side of the line.

• Hanging Valley
A hanging valley is another interesting landform formed by the erosional action of glaciers.
Large glaciers usually carve out U-shaped valleys with a broad base and steep sides.
However, tributary glaciers of the main glacier most often carve out V-shaped valleys that
are shallower than that created by the main glacier. If the glaciers were originally flowing at
the same level, erosive action will cause the shallower valley of the tributary glacier to hang
above the valley of the main glacier. Thus, a hanging valley is formed in this manner.
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Waterfalls often drop down the edges of such hanging valleys. The Bridal Veil Falls in the
Yosemite National Park is an example of a waterfall flowing down from a hanging valley.

Depositional Features of Glaciers

As glaciers flow, mechanical weathering loosens rock on the valley walls, which falls as
debris on the glacier. Glaciers can carry rock of any size, from giant boulders to silt (Figure
below). These rocks can be carried for many kilometers for many years. These rocks with a
different rock type or origin from the surrounding bedrock are glacial erratics. Melting
glaciers deposit all the big and small bits of rocky material they are carrying in a pile. These
unsorted deposits of rock are called glacial till.

Glacial till is found in different types of deposits. Linear rock deposits are called moraines.
Geologists study moraines to figure out how far glaciers extended and how long it took
them to melt away. Moraines are named by their location relative to the glacier:

• Lateral moraines form at the edges of the glacier as material drops onto the glacier
from erosion of the valley walls.
• Medial moraines form where the lateral moraines of two tributary glaciers join
together in the middle of a larger glacier (Figure below).

• Sediment from underneath the glacier becomes a ground moraine after the glacier
melts. Ground moraine contributes to the fertile transported soils in many regions.
• Terminal moraines are long ridges of till left at the furthest point the glacier
reached.
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• End moraines are deposited where the glacier stopped for a long enough period to
create a rocky ridge as it retreated. Long Island in New York is formed by two end
moraines.