Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Ice and Glaciation (Glaciers (Glacial Landforms (Crevasse: Crevasses form…
Ice and Glaciation
Glaciers
-
-
Glacial Erosion
Plucking: When rocks are broken by moving glaciers and then freeze to the bottom of the glacier. When the glacier moves, it takes these rocks with it.
Abrasion: The broken rocks are dragged across the ground by the moving glacier, leaving striations.
Glacial Landforms
-
Cirque glaciers: Cirque glaciers or corries are where major glaciers develop. They form in small hollows of high north facing slopes, like in the Alps. Over time ice collects and glaciers develop and begin to move downslope in a rotational manner.
Pyramidal Peaks and Aretes: When a cluster of cirques form around the slopes of a high peak then pyramidal peaks and horns are able to form. Along the edge separating two cirques, razor sharp aretes develop. An example of this is the Matterhorn in Switzerland.
U-shaped Valleys: As glaciers move down valley they continue to reshape it. Valley glaciers are much bigger than cirque glaciers and carry much greater mass of ice. This enables them to erode through abrasion and plucking at a much faster rate. The resulting landform after glaciation is a deep and wide U-shaped valley
Key Words
Striations: Striations are the long scratches left along the side of rocks, usually due to Abrasion.
Basal Slip: The basal slip is the meltwater base of a glacier that causes a glacier to move. The basal slip is caused the large amount of pressure on the base of the glacier. The pressure causes heat which causes the snow and ice here to melt and form the basal slip
Avalanches
An avalanche is a mass of snow, ice, and rocks falling rapidly down a mountainside
Causes
-
-
Steep slopes, as this helps to increase the speed of movement
Vibrations (for example from an earthquake, noise or off-piste skiers)