Glacial landscapes in the UK

Glacial Process

Glacial landforms

Glacial Management

The weight of the ice in a glacier makes it move downhill, eroding the landscape as it goes

In order for ice to form there needs to be a large accumulation of snow. Snow is made up of ice crystals and air pockets; when the snow is compressed (squashed) the air is removed, forming ice.

Erosion

Transportation

Deposition

Weathering

Freeze- thaw weathering

Abrasion

Plucking

The bottom and the sides of the glacier hold sharp- edged pieces of rock, both small and large, which are used as tools of abrasion. These small rocks wear away the surfaces of rock over which the glacier passes.

Trapped rock particles, have a sandpaper effect.

Large rocks, their sharp edges make deep grooves called striations.

This is the tearing away of blocks of rock from the bedrock ( the surface rock)

Melt-water underneath glacier freezes the base of the glacier to the surface rocks.

As the glacier moves these rocks are simply pulled or plucked away with the glacier.

During the day when temperatures are higher, the snow melts and water enters the cracks in the rock. When the temperature drops the water in the crack freezes and expands. This makes the crack larger. As this process is repeated through continual thawing and freezing the crack gets larger over time. Eventually pieces of rock break off.

The water freezes and expands, putting pressure on the rocks. The ice then thaws, releasing the pressure.If this process is repeated it can make bits of rock fall off.

The carrying of eroded material by the glacial

The dropping of transported material when the ice starts to melt/loses energy/meets an obstacle.

Transportational and depositional landforms

Lateral

Erosional and depositional landforms

Erosional landforms

Depositional landforms

Rotational slip

As freeze-thaw weathering occurs along the edge of the glacier pieces of rock, which break off larger rocks, fall onto the glacier and are transported.

Rocks plucked from the bottom and sides of the glacier are moved downhill with the ice.

Bulldozing is when rocks and debris, found in front of the glacier, are pushed downhill by the sheer force of the moving ice.

At the top end of the glacier the ice doesn't move in a straight line- it moves in a circular motion

This can erode hollows in the landscape and deepen them into bowl shapes

Erratics

Drumlins

Ribbon Lakes

Medial

Ground

Terminal

Corrie

Arete

Pyramidal peak

Glacial trough

Truncated spurs

Hanging valley

  • The glacier is moving down the valley over a band of hard and soft rocks.
  • Softer rocks are more easy to erode and faster to erode than the harder rock
  • The softer rocks are eroded more faster and deeper, because it is deeper it can hold more ice than the harder rocks.
  • Plucking and abrasion wear away the rocks.
  • Bigger the ice the bigger the energy which means more/faster rate of erosion.
  • As the soft rock holds more ice, the erosion rate is faster but the glacier becomes lesser because of the hard rock(the glacier meets an obstacle, which causes it to loses energy), because the amount of ice is small, this means the energy levels also decrease.
  • This is why the glacier deposits some load at the start of the hard rock.
  • After glaciation, the glacier is melted and we are left with a long, hollow valley.
  • Glacier becoming overloaded with rocks and materials they are carrying.
  • It begins to lose energy.
  • Meets an obstacle, but can't erode it so deposits the material around it.
  • But the glacier keeps on moving over it.
  • Therefore moulds the deposit of material into a egg shape.
  • An egg shaped hill which is steep on one side and gently sloping away on the other.
  • Drumlins are elongated hills formed of till.
  • Eroded or plucked boulders are carried within a glacier ( usually 100s) miles from their place of origin.
  • As a glacier melts and retreats it no longer has the energy to carry them and drop them miles from home.