Glaciers

Essential Points
Glaciers are flowing streams of ice
Glaciers have a zone of accumulation where snowfall
exceeds losses (ablation)
Accumulation can be due to high altitude (mountain
glaciers) or cold climate (continental glaciers)
Glaciers have a zone of ablation where losses exceed
snowfall
Glaciers are governed by a balance of snowfall, ice flow,
and ablation
Glaciers retreat by melting back, not by retracting
Glaciers produce distinctive landforms and small scale
features

Snowfall vs Melting &

Evaporation (Ablation)
Zone of Accumulation
Mountain
Continental (Greenland, Antarctica
Zone of Melting or Ablation
Terminus of Glacier
Ablation = Accumulation+ Flow

Small Glacier, Antarctica

Anatomy of a Glacier

A Typical Glacial Advance and

Retreat

Mountain
Glacier
Landforms

Glacial Valley, Yosemite, California

Cirque, Oregon

Cirques, Colorado

The Mother of All Cirques, Mount Everest

Glaciated Landscape, Sierra Nevada

What it May Have Looked Like

Glacier,
Antarctica

Moraines, Colorado

Moraine, Washington

Glacier and Moraines, Peru

Continental
Glacier
Landforms

Greenland
Ice Cap

Antarctic Ice Cap

Continental Glacier, Antarctica

Glacial Deposits, Ontario

Dropstone, Ontario

Erratic, Washington

Kettles, Madison, Wisconsin

Roche Moutonnee, Wisconsin

Crescentic Gouges, Wisconsin

Chatter Marks, Wisconsin

Drumlins, Wisconsin

Buried Log, Wisconsin

Till and Outwash, Wisconsin

Sculpted Bedrock, Ontario

Antarctic Subglacial Lakes

Lake
Vostok

Essential Points
Glaciers are flowing streams of ice
Glaciers have a zone of accumulation where snowfall
exceeds losses (ablation)
Accumulation can be due to high altitude (mountain
glaciers) or cold climate (continental glaciers)
Glaciers have a zone of ablation where losses exceed
snowfall
Glaciers are governed by a balance of snowfall, ice flow,
and ablation
Glaciers retreat by melting back, not by retracting
Glaciers produce distinctive landforms and small scale
features