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Task 1
Using pages 40 and 41 find definitions for
the following terms:
Tundra/Periglacial
Alpine
Glacial
Ice Cap
Ice Sheet
Glacier
Task 2
Using pages 40 and 41 shade the following
types of cold environments on your map.
Tundra/Periglacial
Alpine
Glacial
Create a key so each area is clearly
identified.
Plenary
Glacial Budgets
Task 1
Using pages 44-45 (Philip Allen) and pages
48-50 (Nelson Thorne) find definitions
for each of the key terms:
Mass Balance
Accumulation Zone
Ablation Zone
Equilibrium Line
Sublimation
Steady State
Net Balance
Surge
Task 2
Complete a fully annotated diagram
showing a cross section of a glacier using
the key terms from todays lesson.
Plenary
Ice Movement
Types of Glaciers
Warm Based (Temperate/Alpine)
Melting occurs during the summer, releasing
meltwater.
Meltwater acts as lubricant reducing
friction at the base resulting in basal flow.
Glaciers can move between 20 and 200m per
year.
Has a large amount of erosion,
transportation and deposition.
Types of Glaciers
Cold Based (Polar)
Occur where the temperature remains
below 0C and no melting occurs.
Glaciers are frozen to their bed.
Movement is through internal flow or
deformation.
Limited rates of erosion, transportation
and deposition.
Task 1
Annotate your diagram adding
descriptions of the following types of
glaciers:
Niche
Cirque/Corrie
Valley
Piedmont
Ice Cap
Ice Shelve
Internal Deformation
Occurs within the glacier ice due to the
force of gravity.
Ice crystal align themselves in the
direction of glacier flow sliding past each
other.
Movement is faster at the surface than
the base.
Due to difference in speed, crevasses
form at the faster moving surface.
Internal Deformation
Basal Sliding
The sliding of a glacier over bedrock.
Friction and pressure cause the base to
melt resulting in water acting as a
lubricant.
Can also occur due to creep, where
pressure builds and the ice becomes
more plastic and flows around the
obstacle.
Compression/Extensional Flow
Compression flow: occurs where the land
is flatter causing the ice to decelerate.
Resulting in the ice being thicker. High
levels of erosion.
Extensional flow: occurs where the
gradient is steeper. The ice accelerates
and becomes thinner, causing less
erosion. This also results in crevasses
and seracs.
Plenary
Erosional Landforms
Highland Landforms
Corrie/Cirque
Snow collects in a natural hollow on the
side of a mountain. Over time, further
snow collects in the hollow. This extra
weight compresses the snow underneath,
turning it into ice.
The hollow is deepened and widened by
the corrie glacier through the processes
of abrasion and plucking.
Bowl-shaped corrie
Tarn
Highland
Landforms
Arte
An arte is a knife
edge ridge that
forms where two
or more corries
erode back-toback.
Corrie
An arm chair
shaped hollow
widened and
deepened by a
glacier.
Arete
Sharp knife
edged ridge
between TWO
corries.
Highland Landforms
Pyramidal Peak
Occurs where
three or more
corries erode
back-to-back.
Plenary
Geographical Skills:
Corrie
Orientation and Altitude Task
To find a corries
orientation (aspect)
locate a corrie on a
map and find the
tightest curve of
contours on the back
wall. Place a compass
edge at right angles to
the contours and turn
the dial until the lines
in it are aligned to the
grid lines on the map.
Corrie Orientation
What relationship did you find between
elevation and orientation?
Is there a pattern that emerges and
what is it?
How strong (statistically) is the
relationship you have found?
Erosional Landforms
Glacial Trough
U-Shape Valley
Ribbon Lakes
Fjords
Hanging Valleys
Truncated Spurs
Roche Mountonne
Glacial Trough
Glaciers would have flowed down existing
river valleys, gradually widening,
deepening and straightening them. This
would eventually lead to the formation of
a U-Shape Valley.
Glacial Trough
Glacial troughs have a stepped profile,
and typically have a steep back wall called
a trough end. Above this you may find
hanging valleys and corries.
Ribbon
Lakes
Fjords
Hanging Valleys
Hanging Valleys
Truncated
Spur
Is the straightening of
former pre-glacial
river valleys. Any land
(spurs) that projected
in to the valley being
removed.
Roche Mountonne
Are sections of bedrock
which have been eroded
by glaciers moving over
the top of them. They
have a gently sloping,
polished, stoss slope as a
result of abrasion. The
lee slope is steep and
jagged due to plucking
taking place as a result of
refreezing.
Roche Mountonne
Plenary
Depositional Landforms
Till
Till (or boulder clay) is the generic name
for material that has been transported
and deposited by a glacier. Material can
range in size from some particle to large
house sized boulders. It is often angular in
shape, and when deposited it is orientated
showing the direction of glacier flow. It
can be deposited in a variety of ways
producing a range of features.
Till
Lodgement Till
Material deposited at the base by a
moving glacier (e.g. a drumlin).
Ablation Till
Material deposited as a result of ice
melting (e.g. recessional or terminal
moraine).
Sediment Orientation
Depositional Landforms
Moraines
Moraines are features deposited at the
margins of glaciers. They occur in a
variety of different place, and can
represent a glacial advance or retreat.
The main types of moraine are lateral,
medial, terminal, recessional and push
moraines.
Types of Moraine
Terminal
Recessional
Push
Lateral
Medial
Moraines
Terminal Moraine
Is a ridge of material stretching across
the valley at right angle to the
movement of the glacier, often in the
shape of a crescent. They are steep
side on the glacier side and can reach up
60m in height.
Moraines
Recessional Moraine
Are ridges deposited across the valley as
the glacier has stagnated during retreat.
These are often parallel to terminal
moraines.
Push Moraine
Are moraine that have been reworked as a
result of a glacier re-advancing during
cold periods.
Moraines
Lateral Moraine
Are formed from material deposited at the
sides of glaciers and are parallel to the
direction of glacier movement. They are often
made of material that has fallen from the
valley sides.
Medial Moraine
Where two glacier meet the lateral moraines
combine and form a feature between the two
glaciers.
Drumlins
Erratics
Are rocks and material
carried hundred of
kilometers by a glacier
and deposited on top of
a different rock type.
They are said to be ex
situ (not in the correct
place).
Plenary
Fluvio-glacial Processes
Outwash Plain/Sandur
An outwash plain is the area in front of the
glacier where meltwater streams flow. The
gravels, sands and clays carried by the streams
are deposited. The larger material is found
close the glacier whereas the finer clays are
carried further away.
They may also be made up of other depositional
features (such as moraines and eskers), which
have been reworked by the streams.
Plenary
Assess the role of meltwater erosion
and deposition in the formation of
fluvioglacial landforms. (8 marks)
MARK SCHEME
Eskers
Eskers
Are sinuous, stratified ridges of sediment
running parallel to the flow of the former
glacier. They can range in height from 5
to 20m.
Kettle Holes
Kettle Holes
When a glacier retreats it often leave
blocks of dead ice which can be buried
beneath fluvio-glacial deposits.
Gradually the ice slowly melts and
leaves a depression in the outwash
plain. Depending on the level of the
water-table this can be filled with
water, resulting in a kettle lake. They
are often associated with kames to
produce a kame and kettle topography.
Proglacial Lakes
Proglacial Lakes
Proglacial lakes form at the margins of
glaciers. They often fill the overdeepened basin that has been left as
glaciers retreat. They are filled as
meltwater drains from the glacier.
These lakes can be dammed by moraines,
dead ice or other glaciers and occasionally
cause catastrophic flooding, such as in the
Himalayas and the Andes.
Braided Streams
Braided Streams
When glacial ice melts, the water moves away from
the glacial snout in fast flowing rivers. The water
transports vast quantities of sediment and debris.
If the sediment load is very large in relation to the
velocity of the stream, the coarse material may
start to block the stream, forcing it to change its
course. The stream starts to diverge, splitting into
numerous segments which split and join repeatedly.
Braided streams are typically shallow and wide,
surrounded by poorly sorted rock debris.
Periglacial Environments
Periglacial environments are areas which
are exposed to extremely cold conditions
with intense frost action, and have
permanently frozen ground or permafrost.
These regions have consistently low
temperatures, short summers (max temp
15C), and extremely cold winters
(reaching -40C).
Permafrost
Occurs where the temperature of the subsoil
remains below 0C for at least 2 years. It is
thought that permafrost covers 25% of the
earths surface including areas such as
Siberia, Northern Canada, Alaska and China
If the temperature rises above 0C in the
summer the surface layer (up to 3m deep)
can thaw, forming an active layer. As the ice
melts this releases water in to the layer. Due
to the frozen ground below the water cannot
drain, saturating the ground leading to
solifluction.
Types of Permafrost
Continuous Permafrost
Found in the coldest areas and can be extremely deep
(up to 1500m in Siberia). Often there is little or no
melting of this type of permafrost.
Discontinuous Permafrost
Found in slightly warmer regions, only the upper 2030m of land is frozen. Gaps in the permafrost can be
found under rivers, lakes and near the sea.
Sporadic Permafrost
Found where temperatures fluctuate around 0C. This
results in isolated patches of permafrost, where
localised climatic conditions prevent thawing in the
summer.
Continuous
permafrost occurs in
northern Russia,
Canada, Alaska and
Greenland.
Discontinuous
permafrost extends
to 50N in Siberia
and East Canada.
Sporadic (Alpine)
permafrost occurs at
very high elevations
as far south as 30N.
Freeze Thaw
In periglacial environments
freeze thaw results in the
build up of scree at the
base of slopes as a result
of frost shattering. In flat
areas large angular
boulders can be left known
as blockfield or
felsenmeer (sea of rocks).
Nivation
Takes place under patches of snow in hollows
of bare rock, generally on north to east
facing slopes. This can result from a variety
of processes including; freeze-thaw, chemical
weathering, solifluction and meltwater. The
underlying rock disintergrates, then during
the spring thaw loose material is carried
away. This leaves a nivation hollow, which
could eventually lead to a corrie.
Solifluction
Solifluction occurs when
the surface layer of
permafrost melts. Due to
saturation the soil is heavily
lubricated. This means on
slopes as shallow as 2 the
active layer begins to move
downslope. This creates
tongue like features
forming terraces called
lobes or solifluction sheets.
Ground Contraction
Freezing of the active layer causes
the ground to contract and cracks
open on the surface. During the
following summer these cracks fill
with meltwater and fine sediment.
Over many years this repeats and
forms an ice wedge, which can be
up to 3m deep and 1m wide. On the
surface polygon patterns can be
formed by frost heaving.
Groundwater Freezing
What and
where is
Antarctica?
Page 79 and
the Atlas
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tem
K6CF6lF0
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VwAD
GPfjerI
Event
Tourism in Antarctica
1. What attracts tourists to Antarctica?
2. How do they access this place?
3. What has happened to the number
of tourists over time? (use the graph
to help)
4. What impact does tourism have on
this environment?
5. Is tourism well managed in this
region?
Opinion Line
The Madrid Protocol, Banning Mining,
should be scrapped
It is justifiable to allow whaling
Antarctica remains a wilderness
Tourism to Antarctica should be
banned
Tourism to Antarctica should be
restricted
Homework
Visit www.coolantarctica.com and
research the facts and science
section, look at the photographs as
well.