Glacier system and Key Vocabulary

This Systems Diagram is taken from S-cool revision website and shows the key Inputs, Processes and Outputs, which occur in glaciation.

Key Vocabulary

Ablation - The melting of the ice, mainly during summer months, and usually at the snout end of the glacier.

Accumulation - The build up of the glacier due to snow being compacted into ice.

Calving - The splitting of the end of the glacier into smaller sections. These could become icebergs, if the glacier snout ended in the sea. .

Glaciation - The effect of large masses of ice on the landscape. Compressed snow accumulates to eventually form ice and create a glacier.

Ice Sheets - These are large masses of ice which cover an entire land surface. Antarctica is the best example as the ice sheet covers the entire continent.

Snout - the lower end of the glacier.

Valley Glaciers - The most common of the two types of glacier. These are confined by the valley sides that have already been carved out by a river. Valley glaciers can be found in all the main mountain ranges of the world, such as the Franz Josef Glacier in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, and the Rhone Glacier in Switzerland.

Introduction to Glaciers

A Glacier is: ' A tongue shaped mass of ice moving slowly down a valley.' (Redfern, D and Skinner, M. 2005)

Glaciation occurs in areas of permenant snow. This is normally at high altitude, where the climate is cooler. In the northern hemisphere south facing mountains, a snow line will occur due to the south facing side recieves more insolation. As the snow line builds it becomes more compact, and with meltwater, it freezes and becomes more compact ( this can take between 20-40 years). As the air is expelled from this area of ice, the ice begins to flow downhill as a glacier.

This video, from the National Geographic Channel, shows the power of a glacier. It shows the glacier from underneath. From it you can get an understanding of how the glacier moves across the landscape.

My first blog - Introduction

Hello everyone,

I'm Tom, I live in Leicester and am going onto do my PGCE teacher training for Geography Secondary school in september at the University of Leicester.

Over the summer I am hoping to learn as much as I can about glaciation. I have never really studied in great depth before, and so I'm quite looking forward to it. At the moment my knowledge is relatively low, but I can tell you now, snow and ice are involved, and I know Fjords are an outcome after the glacier has gone. So over the next couple of months, I hope to learn a lot more regarding the subject.

Look forward to reading other peoples blogs and speak to you all soon

Tom