Glaciers and their
topographic
effects
Glaciers: Definition
A large long lasting mass of ice, formed on land, that moves
under its own weight.
Formed in the areas of permanent snow
Snow-line: lowest elevation where snow can survive through out
the year.
Lowest line where winter snow accumulation persist through out
the summer.
On equatorial mountain snow line is around 5000m, 2700m at
mid-latitude and 600m at Greenland.
Formation of a glacier
1. Snow falls in the form of hexagonal ice crystals, known as snow
flakes.
2. Accumulated snow transformed into a amass of smaller
rounded grains.
3. By compression and melting the grain gets denser.
4. Firn: a compacted crystalline angular stage of ice.
5. Many firns get together to form interlocking ice crystals by
partial melting and freezing.
Controlling factor for glaciers
Glaciers are open systems with the incoming of ice as
precipitation and leaving the system as melted water.
Two basic climatic conditions that controls glaciation:
1. Precipitation in the form of snow
2. temperature
Distribution of glaciers
Glaciers occur in temperate as well as polar climate.
85% of the present day glacier ice is on Antarctica.
10% is on Greenland.
Remaining glaciers of the world make up to 5% of the world’s
fresh water.
Melting of Antarctic ice sheet would rise the sea level by 70m.
Types of glaciers
There are two types of glaciers
1. Valley glacier/ Alpine glacier
Originate In the mountain snow field.
Glacier which is confined to its valley and flows from higher to lower
elevation.
Range in length from 100m to 100km.
Profoundly alter the topography.
Piedmont glacier
When a glacier flows beyond its valley over flatten land and spread out
in a broad lobe shape.
Features of Alpine Glaciers
Two functional parts of alpine glaciers
1. Zone of accumulation
2. Zone of abulation
Bergschund :A great crack /crevasse developed by down slope
movement of alpine glaciers.
Terminus/Snout
The lower edge of a glacier
Positive budget -----------down valley moving terminus
Negative budget-----------up ward moving terminus
The equilibrium line/ snow line
Elevation line where snow exists on the ground all year long.
The irregular boundary between the zone of accumulation and the zone of
ablution is called snow line.
Up-glacier migration of snow line over a period of time is a sign of
negative budget.
Up-glacier migration of snow line over a period of time is a sign of
negative budget.
Down-glacier migration of snow line over a period of time is a sign of
negative budget.
Elevation of snow line:
5000m at equator
2700m at midlatitude
600m in greenland
Movement of Valley/Alpine glacier
Less than a few mm to 15 m a day.
Movement is faster at:
Thicker part of a glacier
Upper part of a glacier
Central portion
Surface
Thickest near the equilibrium line
Types of glaciers
2. Sheet glacier/ Continental glacier
Continuous mass of ice
Ice sheets covers 81% of Greenland and 90% of Antarctica.
92% of all the glacial ice is found on Antarctica.
Due to the enormous weight of ice landmass is isostatically
depresses below sea level.
Two types of continental glaciers
1. Ice cap: roughly circular covers an area of less than 50,000 km.
2. Ice fields: larger than ice cap, elongated.
1. Patagonian ice field is the world’s largest (Argentina and Chile), stretches
at 360km.
Movement of continental glacier
Downward and outward from a central high point
Antarctica has two ice sheets separated by transantarctic
mountain
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
1. U-shaped valleys
2. Hanging valleys
3. Burgschrund
4. Truncated spurs
5. Rock basin lakes/ tarn lakes/paternoster lakes
6. Roches moutonnees
7. Cirques
8. Horns
9. Aretes
10. col
11. fjord
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
1. U-shaped valleys
Easy to recognize
The thicker the glacier the more prominent the feature is
The immense weight of glacier ground away the bed rock
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
2. Hanging valleys
Tributary glaciers also for u-shaped valleys.
Their troughs are smaller due to the low rate of erosion (small
size and less ability to erode)
The ice surface of the smaller tributary glacier flows in at the
surface level of the smaller tributary glaciers
The higher trough typically no longer occupied by glaciers is
called hanging valley
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
3. Burgschrund
A widened crack/ crevasse
Forms when a crevasses or a wide crack opens along the
headwall of a glacier
Most visible in summers
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
4. Truncated spurs
The glaciers flowing in the former river valleys straighten the
curves
Due to the inflexible movement f mass of ice around the curves.
Lower ends of ridges get eroded.
Ending landform is triangular facet ridges.
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
5. Rock basin lakes/ tarn lakes/paternoster
lakes
Carved due to the variable resistant of the bedrock
Frost and thaw action contribute significantly
Mostly found in clusters
Also called paternoster lakes due to their resemblance to the
prayer beads.
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
6. Roches moutonnees
Formed where bed rock is more resistant
Rounded knobs, elongated parallel to the glacier movement
Moutonnees means curled
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
7. Cirques
A steep-sided half bowl shaped recess/amphitheatre
Carved at the head of the valley by head-ward erosion
Combine feature of glacial and weathering action
Frost wedging and avalanche steepen the sides and contribute to
the glacial load
These bowls filled by ice and later water is called a s cirque lakes.
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
8. Horns
A characteristic pyramid like feature
Formed by the combination of three or more cirques
Sharp peaks
Matterhorn in Swiss Alps is aits classic example
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
9. Aretees
Means Knife edge in French
The sharp edge or divide between two cirque basins is called
aretees
Develop on the adjoining sides of a mountain
A jaged saw-tooth shaped spine of a rock
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
10.Col
Two eroding cirques may erode an aretes in a saddle like
depression or pass.
Formed by the intersection of two cirques
Erosional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
11.Fjord
A glacial trough intersecting the ocean is called a jford
A long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial
erosion.
Glacial has the ability to erode below sea level
When glacial retreats the deep cutted valley gets filled with
ocean water.
Fjord either raise the elevation of coastline or rise the sea level.
Coastline with note-able fjord: Norway, Greenland, Chile, New
Zealand, Alaska and British Columbia
Erosional landform made by
Continental Glaciers
Ice sheets tend to produce rounded topography
1. Ice scoured plains
2. Rounded knobs
3. Grooved bed rock
4. Striated bed rock
These features are several kilometres thick
Represents the direction of glacial movement
Depositional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
1. Glacial drift
2. Moraines
3. Erratic
4. Glacial out-wash plains
5. Valley train
Depositional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
1. Glacial drift
General term used for glacial deposits is called glacial drift
Stratified drift: a term used for glacial melt water deposits.
This gets sorted by size
Also known as till glaciofluvial deposits
Depositional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
2. Moraines
A special landform
Typical ridges along the glacial margins.
1. Lateral moraine: ridges developed at the sides of a glacier by
deposition
2. Medial moraine: made by the joining together of two tributary
glacier, where the lateral moraines between the two glaciers come
in between them.
3. End moraines: a curved depositional ridge, formed at the end of a
glacier in the form of jumbled up heaps of rocks.
Depositional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
4. Terminal moraines: end moraines that marked the further
advancement of glacier.
5. Recessional moraine: end moraine resultant from a temporary
pause, followed by the stabilization of the ice front, prior to further
recession.
6. Ground moraine/till plain: the hummocky landscape created by the
till at the base of the valley.
Depositional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
3. Erratic
Retreating glaciers sometimes leave behind large rocks, boulders
and cobbles
Foreign in composition
Source region can be identified by rock type
Also highlights the direction of movement of a glacier.
Before the conformation of ice age scientist believed erratics to
be the deposited by biblical floods.
Boulders could of the size of a houses.
Depositional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
4. Glacial out-wash plains
Braided melt water streams laden with sediments and
channelling from the melting glacier.
Deposited beyond the terminal moraine.
Large rocks and debris first and than fine sediments.
Depositional landform made by
Alpine Glaciers
5. Valley train
An alluvial fan deposited by glacio-fluvial process
Confined to valley only.
Depositional landform made by
continental Glaciers
1. Terminal and recessional moraines
2. Till plains
3. Out-wash plains
4. Drumlins
5. Eskers
6. Kames
7. kettle
Depositional landform made by
continental Glaciers
1. Drumlins
Deposited till streamlined in the direction of continental ice
movements.
Looks like elongated teaspoon bowl, lying face down
Could be 100-5000m long and up to 200m high
Reverse of roche moutonnees
Steep slope advancing glacier side narrow tail points in the
direction of ice flow.
Found in abundance in New-York Wisconsin
Depositional landform made by
continental Glaciers
2. Eskers
Narrow and typically winding ridge
Composed of glaciofluvial sand and gravel
Formed by melt water streams flowing in the tunnel at the base
of ice sheets.
Prime source of gravel and sand for construction.
Natural embankment; used for highways and railroad beds in
marshy areas particularly.
Depositional landform made by
continental Glaciers
3. Kames
A small hill, knob or mound of poorly sorted sand and gravel.
Roughly conical in shape
Formed by the deposition of sediments in to the creevases.
Excellent sourceof sand and gravel particularly in new England
Depositional landform made by
continental Glaciers
4. Kettle
A Blocks of ice get buried in the ground moraines or outwash
plain.
More than a kilometre across.
20-30 years are required for complete melting.
The ice melt away and the depression remains.
Most of kettles form lakes.
E.g. 10,000 lakes of Minnesota, USA.
