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25 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Bergschrund |
The large crevasse at the top of an alpine glacier where ice that is moving is separated from ice that is stuck to the mountain above. |
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Crevasse |
Cracks form in the ice as a result of movement. |
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Zone of ablation |
Melted from lower down in the glacier |
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Zone of accumulation |
More snow falls near the top of the glacier |
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Horn |
Resulted by when glaciers erode three or more arêtes, usually forming a sharp-edged peak. |
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Moraine |
An accumulation of rock debris carried or deposited by a glacier. |
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Arête |
A thin, crest of rock left after two adjacent glaciers have worn a steep ridge into the rock. |
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Kettle |
A shallow, sediment-filled body of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. |
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Precession |
The change in direction of Earth's axis of rotation |
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Eccentricity |
How the planets orbit the sun. The Earth's eccentricity affects glacial retreat and advance. |
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Firn |
A partially compacted granular snow that is the intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice. |
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Erratic |
A piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. |
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Till |
Formed when a glacier carries materials such as boulders, gravel, sand and clay from one area and deposits them in another area. |
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Snowfield |
A large expanse of snow, usually with a smooth and uniform surface, and especially at the head of a glacier. |
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Pack Ice |
A mixture of ice fragments of varying size and age that are squeezed together and cover the sea surface with little or no open water. |
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Cirque |
A half-open steep-sided hollow at the head of a valley or on a mountainside, formed by glacial erosion. |
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Milankovitch theory |
The theory that explains how glaciers advance and retreat. |
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Glacial lake |
A lake with origins in a melted glacier. |
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Esker |
They are formed within ice-walled tunnels by streams which flowed under glaciers. |
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Snowline |
The lowest elevation at which there is permanent snow in the summer |
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Alpine (valley) glacier |
Flow downhill from where the snow and ice accumulates through mountains along existing valley |
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Continental glacier |
Large ice sheets that cover relatively flat ground. These glaciers flow outward from where the greatest amounts of snow and ice accumulate. |
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Iceberg |
A glacier that breaks off in the water |
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Ice age |
Great sheets of ice up to two miles thick covered the lands. |
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Interglacial period |
A geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. |
