Glaciers

Glaciers
 Definition: A large mass of ice, flowing across the
land under the influence of gravity and their own
weight
 Types
 Alpine glaciers: Mountain glaciers, follow
drainage patterns
 Snowfield: area above snowline which provides ice for
 glaciers
Cirque glaciers: glaciers originating in basins of
 accumulated snow
Valley glaciers: several cirque glaciers merge into a
 greater downstream flow
Piedmont glaciers: after leaving the mountain slopes, several
 valley glaciers can merge into a larger flow across the landscape
Tidal glaciers: occur if a glacier reaches the sea. Large
pieces of ice can break off forming ice bergs
 Continental glaciers: continuous
expanses of solid ice that subsume broad
landscapes, including drainage systems
and surrounding peaks
 Ice sheets
 cover entire continental masses
 Antarctica (90% coverage)

 Greenland (81% coverage)

 ice mass can achieve depths of 2000 – 3000 meters

 actual landmasses can be isostatically depressed
below sea level
 Ice caps
 covers an area less than 50,000 sq. km. and typically
has a circular shape
 Ice fields
 Ice fills elongated valleys along mountain ranges
 Glacial Processes
 Formation
 Zone of Accumulation: area above
snowline where snow exists year-round
 Snow accumulates in basins and becomes
compacted under its own weight
 Snow becomes firn (compacted, granular
snow)
 Firn becomes glacial ice (exhibits strata from

accumulation)
 Mass Balance
 Above the snow line, in the Zone of Accumulation, mass is
added to the glacier
 Below the snow line, the glacial ice can melt, sublimate,
deflate in the wind, or break off the main glacier
 Ablation or Waste are terms used to describe these losses
 Zone of Ablation: the area below snowline where mass is lost
from the glacier
 Mass balance refers to the rate of accumulation compared
to the rate of ablation
 Positive balance: accumulation greater than ablation;
glacier advances
 Negative balance: ablation exceeds accumulation; glacier
 retreats
With current climate change, the world’s glaciers are largely in
 retreat
When rates of accumulation and ablation are equal, glacial
movement continues to occur, but there is no net advance or
 Glacial Movement
 Simultaneous sliding and oozing motion
 Frictional movement
 glacial ice rubs against bedrock on the sides and bottom
of the valley
 Abrasion and Plucking (erosional process)
 Lateral and medial moraines (transportation features)
 Plastic movement
 glacier moves faster internally than along frictional edges
 Causes cracks (crevasses) to form on the surface
 Surges
 Glaciers have been known to move several meters in one
day
 requires either large accumulations of mass, or
lubricating meltwaters along the sides and bottoms
 Glacial Landforms
 Erosion
 Plucking


 Abrasion
Transportation
 Surface load
 Suspended load (englacial transport)
 Along margins
 Deposition
 Occurs as a result of ablation
 Melting and outwash sort transported material by
mass and texture
 Larger objects deposited in situ
 Smaller sediments carried out by outwash
 Erosional Features of Alpine Glaciers
 Modified upslope drainage
 U-shaped valleys
 Horns

 Arêtes

 Cirques

 Hanging valleys

 Tarns and paternoster lakes

 Fjords
 Depositional Features of Alpine Glaciers
 Glacial Drift
 Deposits of transported material (cobbles and finer
sediment)
Stratified drift:
 deposited by melt waters, sorted by
 size Glacial till: unsorted material deposited in place
by ice
 Moraines
 Deposition of glacial till by retreating glaciers
 Rapid ablation causes till to be dispersed over a
surface, creating a ground moraine or till plain
 Slowing retreats (punctuated by periods of
equilibrium) concentrate deposits of till
 terminal moraines mark the farthest extent of glacial
advance
 recessional moraines mark periods of slowing retreat during
periods of general retreat
 Features of Continental Glaciation
 Erosional features
 deranged drainage
 roche moutonnée

 Depositional features
 Terminal and recessional moraines
 Till plain, outwash plain

 Eskers

 Kettles

 Kames

 Drumlins