Glacial deposition

Drumlin:

Oval-shaped hills made of boulder clay. they occur in groups called swarms.

They were formed when boulder clay was deposited and te glacier continued to move over it, makeing it smoothes and as a result one side is steeper then the other.

Erratics:

Large rocks that are transported with the ice then deposited later in an area of a different rock type.

Eskers:

Long, narrow ridges made of sand and gravel. When the ice began to melt, huge river of melt water flowed through tunnels in the ice and deposited its load there and created a ridge when all the ice was gone.

How glaciers transport their load

Moraine is the loose rock that is carried with the glacier and deposited later.

Lateral moraine:

Carried along the sides of the glacier. Consists of material that was broken off the upper slopes by freeze-thaw.

Medial moraine:

Carried along the centre of the glacier. They were formed when two glaciers met along the kateral moraines and joined together.

Ground moriane:

Material that was plucked from the valley floor that is carried beneath the glacier.

Landforms of glacial erosion

Cirques:

A cirque is the birthplace of a glacier. It is armchair shaped and has three sides and usually a lake in the middle. As snow fell and landed in the cirque it was compressed to ice and slowly plucked rocks from the sides which made the cirque deeper and wider. The ice continued to bulid up and eventually flowed over the hollow and became a glacier moving down hill. The ice finally melted in the cirque and it became a lake, called a tarn.

Aretes:

When two cirques form back to back, a narrow ridge is created inbetween them, this is know as an arete. When three or more cirques form around a mountain the middle pointed part is called the pyramidal peak.

Glaciated Valleys:

A glaciated or U-shaped valley was created when the glacier began to move down hill. It took the most direct root in its path which in most cases is the V-shaped valley where a river once was.
The glacier widened and deepened the river valley changing it to a U-shaped valley.

Ribbon Lakes:
Ribbon lakes are lakes on the floor of the glaciated valley. They were formed when the glacier scoped out hollows in the valley floor. Then when the glacier melted these hollows trapped the water to form lakes.

Hanging Valleys:
A hanging valley occurs when the main glacier deepens and widens but the smaller one is not strong enough to so it hangs over it. So when the glaciers melted it became a water fall because the water melted off the smaller glacier and fell down to wear the main glacier was.

Fiords:

Fiords were once glaciated valleys but got flooded by the amount of water when the ice melted. They are long narrow inlets that are very deep and have steep sides.

Erosion of ice

Plucking:

When the ice moves, the base of the glacier begins to melt. If the ice stops, the meltwater freezes and it sticks to the rock. When the glacier moves it plucks big chunks of rock away with it.

www.drwater.ru

Abrasion:

When the plucked rocks are carried away by the ice, they scrape or scratch the surface which the glacier passes, it leaves marks called striae.

An introduction to glaciers

About 2 million years ago the climates of most countries became much colder. All precipitation took the form of snow.

Snow began to fall and collect as snowfields, especially in the Northern slopes. When more snow fell the snow at the bottom was compressed into ice and gradually began to flow down the mountain as a glacier.

Glaciers are found in the upper sections of high mountains such as the Himalayas and Alps.

Jade's Glaciers

www.ece.cmu.edu

This is my blog on glaciers. Over the next view weeks I am going to research all about glaciers. I have chosen to talk about glaciers becasue i am intrigued by them although I have never been to one or seen one they still interest me. I hope to visit one some day in the near future!
I will be finding pictures on different glaciers and talking about the aspects of each one. I will talk about all the different features of glaciers.
Hope you enjoy!! :)