Glaciers Topics: Types of Glaciers Glacier Movement Deposits by Glaciers The Ice Age Glaciers and Global Warming Glacial Rebound

…………………Snow Line………………….. Glaciers form in areas covered by snow, where more snow falls than melts each year. Air temperatures drop with greater height above sea level and with greater distance from the equator. The lowest level that permanent snows reach in summer is the snow line.

A few questions…. 1.A mountain that is completely covered by snow in the winter but has no snow on it in the summer has what kind of snow line? _____________ 2.The snow line is ____________ near the equator and ___________ near the poles. 3.Why would the snow line not the same for all places at the same latitude?

This snowline is in what country? Would it be relatively high or low compared to the Arctic?

Birth of a Glacier! In the huge snow fields of high peaks, freshly fallen snow becomes compressed and recrystallizes into rough, granular ice material called firn, or neve (NAY vay) As the ice is compressed the crystals grow larger and the lower layers are compressed into solid ice.

After birth… The ice begins to flow downward or outward because of the weight of the overlying firn and snow. This moving mass of ice and snow becomes a valley glacier.

Types of Glaciers A valley glacier is a long, slow- moving, wedge shaped stream of ice. A continental glacier is a very large moving mass of ice, thousands of metres thick, covering an entire polar landmass.

Where do Valley Glaciers occur? Valley glaciers are known as alpine glaciers, and occur in all parts of the world where the mountains stretch above the snow line. The largest valley glaciers are in southern Alaska, and the Himalayas.

Also known as ice sheets, form in polar areas where the snow line is close to sea level and wide areas are above the snow line Roughly circular or oval in shape. Occur today in Greenland and Antarctica. Mountains that project through are called nunatuks Video Where do Continental Glaciers occur?

Continental Glaciers locations: Greenland glacier is square kilometres in area and up to 3 km thick. The Antarctic glacier covers an area of nearly 12.5 million square km and reaches nearly 5 km in thickness. Small ice sheets called ice caps are found in Iceland, Baffin Island, Spitsbergen and other large Artic Ocean Islands.

Glacier Poster Assignment Choose one of the following top 10 glaciers in the world (next 2 slides) Research and design a small poster including all the information listed on the marking guide provided Due Tuesday March 1 st.

5. Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland 1. Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina 2. Glacier Bay, Alaska 3. Furtwängler Glacier, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania 4. Pasterze Glacier, Austria

6. Yulong Glacier, China7. Fox and Franz Josef, New Zealand 8. Athabasca Glacier, Canada 9. Biafo Glacier, Pakistan 10. Antarctica