glacial system

A glacier is an open system of flowing ice. Water enters the

system as snow, which is transformed into ice by compaction and
recrystallization.The ice then flows through the system,under the
pressure of its own weight,and leaves the system by evaporation
and melting. The balance between the rate of accumulation and
the rate of melting determines the size of the glacial system

The essential parts of a glacial system are (1) the zone of

accumulation,where there is a net gain of ice,and (2) the zone of
ablation,where ice leaves the system by melting, calving
(shedding of large blocks of ice from a glacier edge, usually into a
body of water),and evaporating

Transportasion

Glacial plucking

Glacial plucking is the lifting out and removal of fragments of

bedrock by the moving ice .It is one of the most effective ways in
which a glacier erodes the land.The process involves ice
wedging.Beneath the glacier,meltwater seeps into joints or
fractures,where it freezes and expands,wedging loose blocks of
rock.The loosened blocks freeze to the bottom of the glacier and are
plucked, or quarried, from the bedrock, becoming incorporated in
the moving ice.The process is especially effective where the
bedrock is cut by numerous joints and where the surface of the
bedrock is unsupported on the downstream side.

Abrasion

is essentially a filing process.The angular blocks plucked and

quarried by the moving ice freeze firmly into the glacier;thus firmly
gripped , they are ground against the bedrock over which the
glacier moves . The process is a trademark of glaciers . Aided by the
pressure of the overlying ice , the angular blocks are very effective
agents of erosion, capable of wearing away large quantities of
bedrock . The fragments become abraded and worn down as they
grind against the bedrock surface . As a result , glacial boulders
usually develop flat surfaces that are deeply scratched.

Sedimentation or glacial ice or glacier is the deposition of a material on a place by

the ice. Here are some results of sedimentation ice landscape:
a. U-shaped landscape
The landscape of the results of the deposition by glaciers is the original form of a Vshaped valley into U. By the time spring arrives, erosion by glaciers that slid down
the slope. Rock or soil erosion results also down the slope and settles in the valley.
As a result, the original V-shaped valley into a U-shaped
b. Osar: yan-shaped ice deposits that narrow and long back.
c. Kame: deposits of ice shaped like a plateau.
d. Drumlin: hill - a small hill elliptical, partly formed by the moraine base.
e. Till plain: plains of ice deposition results.

Effect

modification of drainage systems,creation of numerous lakes,the

fall of sea level, isostatic adjustments of the lithosphere,and
migration and selective extinction of plant and animal specie