Glacier Terms
This term describes a piece of rock carried far from its original location by glacial ice.
What is a glacial erratic?
This term describes a large accumulation of ice, snow, rock, and sediment that moves downhill under its own weight and gravity
What is a glacier?
Periods of large ice sheets on Earth are called these, while periods without them are known as interglacial periods.
What are glacial periods or ice ages?
This term refers to large animals typically weighing over 100 pounds, such as mammoths and saber-toothed cats.
What is megafauana?
This Ice Age herbivore, known for its long tusks and thick fur, is considered a close relative of modern elephants.
What is the wooly mammoth?
This type of glacial landform is a sharp peak carved into a mountain by glacial activity
What is a horn?
This type of glacier forms in a mountainous region and moves into a valley.
What is an alpine glacier?
This period, which lasted from approximately 2.4 million to 11,700 years ago, was characterized by glacial cycles and cold climates.
What is the Ice Age?
This massive herbivore, known for its slow movements and towering size, was one of the iconic megafauna of the Ice Age.
What is the giant ground sloth?
As you increase depth in a snow pit, what happens to its temperature?
What is an increase in temperature?
A depression filled with water left by a retreating glacier is called this.
What is a kettle lake?
This crack in a glacier or ice sheet can be extremely dangerous and is sometimes hidden by snow.
What is a crevasse?
What is the name of the ice sheet that covered most of North America?
What is the Laurentide ice sheet?
Megafauna played this critical role in ecosystems by significantly impacting vegetation and other animal populations.
What is a keystone species?
This formation allowed animals and early humans to migrate across regions that are now separated by oceans.
What is a land bridge?
This term describes parallel ridges of debris deposited along the sides of a glacier.
What is a lateral morraine?
This giant piece of freshwater ice, often seen floating in the ocean, originates from a glacier or ice shelf.
What is an iceberg?
Over the last 650,000 years, these two factors in Earth's atmosphere have risen and fallen in correlation, influencing glacial and interglacial cycles.
What is temperature and CO2 levels?
Scientists believe these two main factors contributed to the extinction of many Ice Age animals.
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What are overhunting by humans and environmental changes?
This excavation site in Los Angeles, California, has provided significant fossils of Ice Age animals, including mammoths and dire wolves.
What are the La Brea Tar Pits?
This steep-sided, bowl-shaped depression carved into a mountain by a glacier is often the site of a tarn.
What is a cirque?
This type of glacier covers vast areas, spreading outward from a center of accumulation.
What is a continental glacier?
The capitalized term "Ice Age" refers to the most recent major glaciation during this geological period.
What is the Pleistocene?
This adaptation helped animals like woolly mammoths survive the harsh Ice Age winters.
What is thick fur for insulation?
During the Ice Age, glaciers caused this major change to sea levels, exposing land bridges like the one between Asia and North America.
What is a drop in sea level?