Lab 7: Glaciers, Erosion, and Deposition

Key Q: How can glaciers create & change landforms?

Glaciers

What is a Glacier?Glaciers are made up of fallen snow that, over many years,

compresses into large, thickened ice masses.

Due to the ice’s mass and the force of gravity glaciers flow like

very slow rivers.

How do Glaciers affect the land?

Glaciers transport material as they move.

They sculpt and carve away the land beneath them.

The ice erodes the land surface and carries the broken rocks and sediment far from their original

places.

Moraines rock and sediment a glacier

picks up or pushes as it moves (like a plow)

Terminusthe front of the glacier

If the front of the glacier moves forward faster then it melts.

Glaciers advance if there is more ice accumulating then melting

Glaciers can advance

If the front of the glacier moves slower than it melts

Glaciers retreat if there is more ice melting than

accumulating

Glaciers can retreat

If the glacier stays in the same place

Amount of ice accumulating

and melting are equal

Glaciers can “standstill”

1. How is fluffy snow transformed into glacier ice?

2. Why is “river of ice” a good name for a valley glacier?

3. Explain how glaciers form both erosional & depositional landforms.

4. In which part of the Earth System would you put glaciers? Why?

5. How do glaciers affect the geosphere?

6. Explain how changes in the atmosphere can affect glaciers.

7. What is a moraine?

8. What is a terminus?

9. Explain how glaciers can advance, retreat or standstill.

10. What force causes glaciers to flow?

11. Make Earth System Connections