GEO 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Isostasy, Outwash Plain, Sea Level
31 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
A glacier is a mix of ice and rock, 95% water. How do glaciers move: gravitational pull, move by melting in the base of the glacier and bedrock. What factors influence glacier movement: flows along the path of least resistance, slope steepness, precipitation, air temperature, climate. Large amphitheatre-shaped basin or depression in which ice accumulates. Caused by a cascading snow or avalanche from the valley glacier into the ground below. When the glacier melts, this depression is filled with water forming small lakes called tarn lake, which is nestled in the basin of the cirque. Thickness of ice may be as large as 2. 7km. Accumulation of snow in very steep mountain valleys. Partially compacted snow that has been left over from past seasons and has been recrystallized into a substance denser than neve. So compacted that there are no air pockets and absorbs all colors except blue so it reflects blue.
