Glacier Differentiation
and
Landforms
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Importance of Glaciers
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Glaciers are large
masses of moving ice
They store 75% of the
worlds fresh water
They affect sea levels
Glaciers carve and
shape the landscape
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Types of Glaciers
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Alpine: sometimes
called Mountain or
Valley because that’s
where they occur.
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Continental: cover
vast areas of
continents.
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Alpine Glaciers
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Alpine glaciers
are influenced by
gravity and
move down a
mountain from a
zone of
accumulation at
its highest point.
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Alpine Glacier Dynamics
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Zone of
Accumulation:
where the snow
falls. This snow
appears white and
fresh.
Zone of Ablation:
end of the glacier
where melt
occurs. The snow
here appears dirty
due to all the till
being push up
from the glacier
base.
Alpine Glacier Dynamics
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If more snow falls at
the Zone of
Accumulation than
melt, then the glacier
advances.
If more melt occurs at
the Zone of Ablation
than snow fall, the
glacier retreats.
Alpine Glacier Dynamics
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Alpine glaciers are
always flowing
downhill, or in a
forward motion,
even if they are in
retreat.
Plucking-pulling
large boulders out of
the rock.
Scouring-scratches
surface smooth
Alpine Glacier Dynamics

Crevassing
occurs due
to the
different
speeds of ice
flow within
the glacier
Alpine Glacier Landforms
Alpine Glacier Erosional
Landforms
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Cirques are glacial
amphitheaters that
carve bowl shaped
impressions.

Three cirques create a
Matterhorn.
Alpine Glacial Erosional
Landforms
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When
cirques
melt they
create the
pristine
mountain
lakes
known as
tarns.
Alpine Glaciers Erosional
Landforms
Valleys: A long depression in the
surface of the land that usually
contains a river.
Alpine Glacier Erosional
Landforms
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Fiords are glacial valleys submerged by the sea
Alpine Glacial Depositional
Landforms
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Morainesdeposition of
glacial till.
Terminal-end
Lateral-side
Medial-middle
Continental Glacier Landforms
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Glaciers that
cover
continents.
Michigan was
covered by a
continental
glacier.
Continental Glacier Landforms
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Moraines
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Outwash plains
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Kettle lakes
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Erratics
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