Test your knowledge with free interactive questions on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

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.

Glacial landscape processes

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.
Glacial landscape scales

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.

Subglacial and ice-marginal

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.
Proglacial and periglacial

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
1

Tectonic Processes & Hazards

2

Option 2A: Glaciated Landscapes & Change

3

Option 2B: Coastal Landscapes & Change

4

Globalisation

5

Option 4A: Regenerating Places

6

Option 4B: Diverse Places

7

The Water Cycle & Water Insecurity (A2 only)

8

The Carbon Cycle & Energy Security (A2 only)

9

Superpowers (A2 only)

10

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

11

Option 8B: Migration & Identity (A2 only)

Practice questions on Landscapes

Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
Answer all questions on Landscapes

Unlock your full potential with Seneca Premium

  • Unlimited access to 10,000+ open-ended exam questions

  • Mini-mock exams based on your study history

  • Unlock 800+ premium courses & e-books

Get started with Seneca Premium