GEOGRAPHY:

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

ABOUT GLACIERS

IMPORTANT KEY WORDS:
 
Glacier: a river of ice
 Ice age: a time when Earth’s average temperature was lower than
usual, and glaciers spread.
 Tundra: A cold region where the ground is deeply frozen; only the
surface thaws in summer, allowing small plants to grow.
 Ice sheet: Giant glaciers that cover huge areas.
 Erosion: The picking up and wearing away of material.
 Plucking: A type of erosion; ice freezes around the rock and plucks
them out.
 Abrasion: A type of erosion; the plucked rocks scrape bits off the
glacier bed as they are transported.
 Transportation: the glacier carries away the material it has eroded.
 Deposition: As the glacier melts the load (rocks) it is carrying falls to
the ground.
 Glacial Till: Rocks stones, sand a clays that the glacier carries and then
deposits.
 Meltwater: water from the melting ice.
 Corrie: an armchair-shaped hollow on the side of the mountain.
 Arete:A sharp ridge formed by two back to back corries
 Pyramidal Peak: 3 or more corries around a mountain top
U shaped Valley: A wide valley carved out by a glacier with
steep valley sides.
 Misfit river: a river in a wide valley that it did not erode.
 Ribbon lake: Long thin lakes created by a glacier digging out
the bands of softer roc.
 Hanging Valley: A small valley that hangs above a larger one.
 Till: load carried by the glacier (rocks, stones, sand and clay)
 Morain: deposited till in a mound.
 Terminal morain: The deposited till at the end of a glacier.
 Lateral morain: The deposited till at the sides of a glacier.
 Ground morain: material that was frozen to the base and
deposits on the valley floor.
 Erratic:stray rocks that have been transported and then
deposited by the glacier
 Drumlin:low hillsmade out ofdeposited material that look like
the back of a spoon
QUESTIONS

 Questions:

 1: The map shows the British Isles were

joined to the rest of Europe, in the last
ice age. Why was this?

 2: Then they separated from the rest of

Europe again. Why?
ANSWERS

 During the ice age, water levels in

the Ocean were much lower than
today. That’s because so much
water was locked up in ice. The
water drained away from shallow
parts in the Ocean floor. They
became land.
GLACIERS: WHAT ARE THEY?
OH-NO!

 The trouble is the more the glaciers melt the higher the water level in
the ocean will rise. Many coastal places may flood, affecting millions of
people.
 Earth has warmed up often before. This time, most scientists agree that
we humans are the main cause. Mainly because of the all the fossil fuel
(coal, oil and gas) that we burn.
BY SHAM AL
KARBI