2.4.1

Landscapes

Test yourself

Glacial Landscape Processes and Scales

Many areas of the world contain a variety of old glacial and periglacial environments. They create a number of distinctive landscapes in both upland and lowland areas that can be used to study the extent of previous ice cover.

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Glacial landscape processes

  • Glacial erosion is the removal of rock material by ice through abrasion, plucking and meltwater flow from ice margins.
  • Glacial debris entrainment is sediment being incorporated into glacial ice and carried along with the ice.
  • Glacial sediment transport - sediment on top of (supraglacial), within (englacial) or at the base (subglacial) of ice being moved.
  • Glacial deposition is when material is dropped from the ice at the margin or the base of a glacier and deposited, or deposited from meltwater.
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Glacial landscape scales

  • Landforms that vary in scale provide evidence of former glacial and periglacial conditions. Some landforms you may find at different scales (from big to small) are:
    • Macro-scale - corries (cirques), aretes, pyramidal peaks, glacial troughs, ribbon lakes, till plains, end-moraines, knock and lochans.
    • Meso-scale - roches moutonnees, drumlins, kames, eskers, kettle holes.
    • Micro-scale - striations, chattermarks, erratics.

Glacial Landform Locations

Many areas of the world, although several are now ice-free, contain a variety of relict glacial and periglacial environments.

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Subglacial and ice-marginal

  • Subglacial areas would have been covered by either warm or cold-based ice for thousands of years at a time and dominated by the action of erosion and erosional landforms.
  • Ice-marginal areas were at the edges of ice sheets and valley glaciers. This was where deposition from ice was dominant.
Illustrative background for Proglacial and periglacialIllustrative background for Proglacial and periglacial ?? "content

Proglacial and periglacial

  • Proglacial areas occur in front of ice masses where meltwater deposition and wind action on glacially eroded sediments took place.
  • Periglacial areas had no ice cover but were underlain by permafrost.

Jump to other topics

1Tectonic Processes & Hazards

2Option 2A: Glaciated Landscapes & Change

3Option 2B: Coastal Landscapes & Change

4Globalisation

5Option 4A: Regenerating Places

6Option 4B: Diverse Places

7The Water Cycle & Water Insecurity (A2 only)

8The Carbon Cycle & Energy Security (A2 only)

9Superpowers (A2 only)

10Option 8A: Health & Human Rights (A2 only)

11Option 8B: Migration & Identity (A2 only)

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