Glaciation
Terms to learn are in BOLD in the outline below:
Topic outline:
- Occurrence of glaciation
- Types of glaciers
- continental ice sheets
- valley glaciers
- Glacial formation - firn
- Movement
- glacial flow
- glacial advance
- zone of accumulation
- zone of ablation
- glacial budget
- Erosional features - U-shaped valley
- valley glaciers - arete, horn, cirque, hanging valley
- Depositional features
- Glacial till versus Stratified glacial drift
- ice sheets - terminal, ground, and recessional moraines, eskers, kames, drumlins
- valley glaciers - lateral moraines, medial moraines
- Effects of glaciation - sea level change
Interesting places to visit:
Good starting place for general info: http://nsidc.org/glaciers/
Lots of great info and photos: http://www.glacier.rice.edu/land/5_tableofcontents.html
Virtual geology tours of glaciers: http://www.aqd.nps.gov/grd/tour/glaciers.htm
When you are finished with this topic, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- What areas are currently covered with continental glaciers?
- How is glacial ice formed?
- What is the difference between a valley glacier and a continental glacier?
- What causes a glacier to advance?
- By what means does a glacier erode material?
- What are some depositional landforms of glaciers? Some erosional landforms? How are they formed?
- What are some of the direct and indirect effects of glaciation?
