Glacier Formation and Flow
What are processes of ablation?
Glaciers that span thousands of square kilometers, and sometimes entire continents
What is an ice sheet/continental glacier?
Valleys that form when glaciers carve through areas and erode the sides of a valley
What is a U-shaped valley?
The most prominent greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere
What is CO2?
Period of time where the Earth is covered in glaciers
What is an ice age?
Ablation is ____ than accumulation when the equilibrium line's altitude is higher relative to a whole-year average altitude
What is greater/higher/more? (weird phrasing sorry)
Bowl-shaped glacier formed from erosion
What is a cirque?
When three cories (u-shaped areas of erosion) and aretes meet
What is a pyramidal peak?
When the melting of glaciers causes global warming to accelerate
OR
What is the <whatever explanation makes sense NGL>?
What is Snowball Earth?
A glacier flows through ice crystals sliding over each other within the glacier due to the pressure of ice in the accumulation zone
What is internal deformation/creep?
Glaciers that come from confined areas and spill out into larger areas
What is a piedmont glacier?
meandering ridges of sand and gravel deposited by glacial meltwater
What is an esker?
Greatest occurence(s) of isostatic rebound on the planet in the present-day (can be more general tbh)
What is the Richmond Gulf?
What are parts of North America and Europe covered by glaciers during the last ice age?
What are areas of Earth covered in ice during the last ice age?
Period of time where glaciation was at it's maximum extent in the last 30,000 years
What is the Last Glacial Maximum?
This is wetted snow that has survived one summer and has not yet been compressed into glacial ice
What is firn?
When a glacier is kept from spilling outwards further by a "shelf"
What is ice shelf buttressing?
the blanket of till covering the ground between more prominent moraines
What is a ground moraine?
Stores significant methane and is currently a hazard due to global warming
What is permafrost?
A glacier that existed during the last few ice ages in North America, covering much of Canada and significant portions of the Northern U.S.
Laurentide Ice Sheet
What is regelation?
A portion of the glacier facing towards and floating on the sea (hint: what do you use to taste things?)
What is a glacier/ice tongue?
Subglacial meltwater channel which is semi-circular and cuts upwards into ice
What is the R-Channel?
Ocean current that makes European temperatures warmer than North American temperatures despite being in similar latitudes
What is the gulf stream?
(brings warm air lol)
The ocean-passage which contributed to Antarctic glaciation
What is the Drake Passage?