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GLACIERS
CHAPTER 11
GEOLOGY
10. Approximately 10 percent of the Earth is covered by glaciers; during the last Ice Age, they covered one-third of the Earth’s surface.9. Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on the planet, storing an estimated 75 percent of the world’s supply.8. Glaciers are found in 47 countries.7. A glacier can range in length from the equivalent of a football field to more than 100 miles.6. The Antarctic ice sheet is actually a glacier and has existed for at least 40 million years. If it were to melt in its entirety, sea levels would rise 210 feet worldwide, according to the U.S. Geological Service.
Top 10 glacier facts
5. Though it sits on the equator, Mount Kilimanjaro is glaciated.4. On steep slopes, a glacier can be as thin as 50 feet.3. Mountain valleys are typically “V” shaped before being taken oven by a glacier; during glaciation, the valley widens and deepens and thus becomes “U” shaped.2. A single glacier ice crystal can grow to be as large as a baseball.1. Alaska is estimated to have more than 100,000 glaciers. Most remain unnamed
World glaciers
What is a glacier?
a thick mass of moving ice
http://www.jadecoast.ca/Sawyer%20glacier.JPG
Glaciar Perito Moreno, in Santa Cruz province, Argentina. It hasn’t happened since 1988 and it is said to be one of the most extraordinary natural events in the world.
- Roberto Cerrudo
Trans Labrador Highway
Snow to firn to glacial ice
How do glaciers erode the surface?
• Plucking –freeze/thaw process lifts particles into ice
Striations- parallel scratches made from rocks in ice scraping against bedrock
Kelly’s IslandGlacial grooves
Glacial polish
TYPES OF GLACIERS
• Alpine (Valley)Glaciers – glaciers that form at high elevation in mountain valleys
• Ice sheets or Continental Glaciers form in polar regions such as Greenland and Antarctica.
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/DAAC_DOCS/geomorphology/GEO_9/geo_images_9/Fig9.20.gif
Cirque
• A bowl-shaped depression located where a glacier begins to form
http://crevassezone.org/Photos/Graphics/4163L-(Cirque).jpg
Horn
• A tall, pointed rock peak left at the top of a mountain
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology//parks/glac/car0348.jpg
Kinnerly Peak - Glacier National Park
The most famous horn in the Alps… The Matterhorn
• Located on the boundary between Switzerland and Italy, the Matterhorn’s summit is 1500 feet above sea level.
Arete – spines or ridges of rock that separate glacial valleys
U-shaped Valley - Yosemite National Park
V-shaped valleys become U-shaped valleys as glaciers move through them…
A typical river valley
Over time, running water cuts a deeper V-shape.
Step 1 Step 2
Step 3 Step 4Glacier fills valley, widening and straightening the channel
Glaciers melt leaving a U-shaped valley
VALLEY GLACIER
Glaciers pick up lots of sediment as they advance over the land.
http://www.geographyjim.org/Newzealandglacier.jpg
TYPES OF GLACIAL DRIFT(Sediments)
• TILL- unsorted; deposited by ice
• STRATIFIED DRIFT- layered; deposited by meltwater streams
• OUTWASH- sorted sand; deposited by meltwater
till
outwash
Erratics
•Boulders carried great distance by the glacier
•Don’t match surrounding rock
•“strange rock”
Erratics along Lake Michigan Shoreline
TYPES OF GLACIERS
• Alpine (Valley)Glaciers – glaciers that form at high elevation in mountain valleys
• Ice sheets or Continental Glaciers form in polar regions such as Greenland and Antarctica.
MORAINES
• Deposited along edge of glacier during melting
• Ridges of till• Terminal- very end of
glacier• Lateral- side of glacier• Recessional-
progresses behind terminal
MORAINES
• MADE OF TILL
http://www.helsinki.fi/~jhyvonen/PB/M/Cerro%20Tronador%20moraine-pp.JPG
terminal moraine – unsorted sediments deposited at the edge of the melting glacier
Ground Moraine- flat till deposits between recessional moraines
Moraine Deposits = unsorted sedimentsMoraines are made of unsorted sediments.
Only mass movements and glaciers deposit
unsorted sediments.
Since there are no large hills or
mountains in Michigan for this sediment to fall
down, it must have been deposited by the
glaciers.
Drumlins
• Hills of sediment deposited by the glacier- till
Boyne, Nubs Nob, Irish Hills are drumlins in MI
MI Drumlins
KAMES
Cone shaped deposits
Deposited at end of meltwater streams
Stratified drift
Mt. Holly is a kame
ESKERS
• Meandering ridges of stratified drift
• Deposited by meltwater streams
• Mined for gravel
Kettle Lakes
• Made from ice blocks
• Deep inland lakes• rocky
Kettle Lakes
• Kettle lakes form when blocks of ice break off the front edge of a glacier, become buried by sediment. The ice melts leaving a hole which fills with water creating a lake.
Outwash plain
• From melt water (lake) in front of ice
• Flat; sandy
• Contains outwash and often kettle lakes
Pleistocene Epoch“Ice Age”
2my- present
1.5 mya
mastodon
Mammoth
• Bigger than mastodon
• Curvy tusk
When the climate cooled…
Ice advanced over the land, moving southward from Canada over the Great Lakes Region.
Each of the Great Lakes began as a river.
Image from Earth Science, Tarbuck and Lutgens, 2003
As the climate cooled…
• The rivers froze.
• Glaciers moved through the river valley – widening and deepening them to form today’s lake bottoms.
Why do scientists believe that glaciers once covered Michigan?
Moraine Deposits =unsorted sediments
• What can deposit unsorted sediment?
Mass movement?
ice
Moraine Deposits have the same shape as the Great Lakes.
• Michigan moraines run parallel to the shoreline.
• The same process that formed the moraines formed the Great Lakes.
3 ice lobes
When the climate began to warm, the glaciers began to melt and retreat.
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/geosciences/CT/TIG/WEBSITES/LOCAL/Spring2002/Michael_Marsicek/images/Great_Lakes_Formation.gif
The Glacial History of Michigan
• The depth of the lake is determined by the thickness of the ice at the time of glaciation. The farther north the lobe of ice, the thicker it was.
• Consequently, the lakes get more shallow in the southern Great Lakes region.
LAKE: GREATEST DEPTH:
• Superior = 1,333 ft.• Michigan = 925 ft.• Huron = 725 ft.• Ontario = 283 ft.• Erie = 212
ft.
The fresh water from the melting glaciers filled in the deep U-shaped valleys that they had carved and
turned them into the lakes we have today.
http://www.ofps.ucar.edu/gapp/networks/images/greatlakes_map.jpg
What other evidence do we have that glaciers once covered our state?
• Depositional features such as drumlins and kettle lakes.
Kalkaska, Michigan
Isostatic (crustal) reboundland is rebounding up from weight
of glacierabout 53 cm/ century
Pictured Rocks
Kettle Lakes
Why do scientists believe that glaciers once covered Michigan?
• Michigan is covered with till
• The moraine deposits follow the outline of Great Lakes
• Erratics
• Striations
• Isostatic rebound
What glacier evidence do we see in Grosse Pointe?
• Erratics• Old beach ridges
– Ridge road– Mack avenue
• Till
Resources• http://cse.cosm.sc.edu/erth_sci/Erosion/plucking.jpg
• http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/geo/courses/ge101/Pictures/Glaciers/GlacialStriations.jpg
• http://www.go2moon.com/image/Valdez-Glacier.jpg
• http://www.glaciers.pdx.edu/kennicott/photos99/glacier.jpg
• http://www.brownbearsw.com/photos/pws/moraine.jpg
• http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~geol445/hyperglac/depproc1/moraine.JPG
• http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dgsmit/MORAINE.jpg
• http://mac01.eps.pitt.edu/harbbook/c_viii/images/icefields/Hwb0530.GIF
• http://www.geographyhigh.connectfree.co.uk/s3glacgeoghigh34b.gif
• http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/lemke/images/lithosphere/drumlin_diagram_small.gif
• http://online.sd43.bc.ca/della/images/drumlin.jpg
• http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~qlab/g420/drumlin.jpg
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/standard/img/geography/glaciation/g98.gif
• http://pbisotopes.ess.sunysb.edu/esp/Science_Walks/carmans/kettle-hole.gif
• http://perth.uwlax.edu/faculty/stoelting/Intro/Guides/Images3/southern_Kettle_Moraine_lakes_WI_800.jpg
• http://images3.vrbo.com/vrbo/images/18982c.jpg• http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/greatlakeskids/images/g_lakes_form.gif• http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/glacier/UvalleyB.gif• http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/glacier/UvalleyC.gif• http://www.jchl.co.uk/photos/greenland/Valley.jpg• http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/student/martel1/ice.jpg• http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/glacier/gifJPGdisplay.html• http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/lemke/alpine_glacial_glossary/images/
more_examples/canada_cirque01_dh.jpg• http://www.uoregon.edu/~millerm/Kluane1.jpeg• http://people.surfaceeffect.com/pete/photos/folksholiday/yosemitevalley/
valley2.jpg• http://www.theotherpages.org/images/image200.jpg• http://www.northforkmedia.com/spiveyscience/images/glacialerosion/
pages/grinnellcirqueareteetc_jpg.htm• http://www3.uakron.edu/modlang/97trip/d16f.jpg• http://tvl1.geo.uc.edu/ice/Image/icland/Greenland.html• http://www.bougerolle.net/photos/matterhorn.jpg
• http://perth.uwlax.edu/faculty/stoelting/Intro/Guides/Images3/glacial_erratics_Lake_Michigan_WI_800.jpg
• http://www.fettes.com/Cairngorms/images/Easter_Island.jpg
• http://rt23.com/Scenery/spring/images/tripod_rock.jpg
• http://ic.ucsc.edu/~rocks/eart109/Photo_Composition/Top_Pothole.jpg
• http://perth.uwlax.edu/faculty/stoelting/Intro/Guides/Images3/southern_Kettle_Moraine_lakes_WI_800.jpg