PSYC 4039 Chapter : Introduction
Document Summary
Ice sheets: exist on a larger scale than valley glaciers, two major ice sheets on earth are over greenland and antarctica, often called continental ice sheets. Ice flows out in all directions from one or more snow accumulation centers: other types of glaciers. If melted, the sea level would rise 60-70 meters. Formation of glacial ice: glaciers form in areas where more snow falls in winter than melts during the summer, steps in formation, air infiltrates snow, snowflakes become smaller, thicker, and more spherical. Snow is recrystallized into a much denser mass of small grains called firn: once thickness of ice and snow >50m, firn fuses into a solid mass of interlocking ice crystals glacial ice. Landforms created by glacial erosion: erosional features of glacial valleys, glacial troughs, truncated spurs, hanging valleys, pater noster lakes, cirques, tarns, flords, ar tes, horns.
