QUESTION NO 1

GLACIERS:-
Glaciers are made up of fallen snow that, over many years, compresses into large, thickened ice masses.
Glaciers form when snow remains in one location long enough to transform into ice. What makes
glaciers unique is their ability to flow. Due to sheer mass, glaciers flow like very slow rivers. Some
glaciers are as small as football fields, while others grow to be dozens or even hundreds of kilometers
long.

Presently, glaciers occupy about 10 percent of the world's total land area, with most located in polar
regions like Antarctica, Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic. Glaciers can be thought of as remnants from
the last Ice Age, when ice covered nearly 32 percent of the land, and 30 percent of the oceans. Most
glaciers lie within mountain ranges that show evidence of a much greater extent during the ice ages of
the past two million years, and more recent indications of retreat in the past few centuries.

An ice cap is a dome-shaped glacier mass flowing in all directions, such as the ice cap on Ellesmere Island
in the Canadian Arctic. An ice sheet is a dome-shaped glacier mass exceeding 50,000 square kilometers.
The world's ice sheets are confined to Greenland and Antarctica.

TYPES OF GLACIERS :
Ice Sheets
Continental Ice Sheets
The largest type of glacier is a continental ice sheet. The definition of an ice sheet is a glacier that covers
an area of over 50,000km2. These glaciers are so thick they completely conceal topographical features
like mountains and valleys. Once, millions of years ago, these vast areas of glacial ice covered much of
the Earth’s surface. Now, they are only found in Antarctica and Greenland.

Ice caps & ice fields

By contrast, an ice cap or ice field covers an area of less than 50,000 km2. However, an ice cap or ice
field can also completely cover peaks in mountainous areas, such as the ice fields found in Patagonia.
These enormous glacial formations can feed many other types of glacier, which spread out from their
center.

Outlet glaciers
Glaciers that flow out of ice sheets, icefields or ice caps are called outlet glaciers. The flow of outlet
glaciers is affected by the landscape, travelling through valleys and exposed rock. An outlet glacier often
continues through these rocky channels to become a valley glacier. An example of an outlet glacier is the
Lambert Glacier in Antarctica. The Lambert Glacier is the largest glacier in the world, draining roughly 16
percent of the Antarctic ice sheet out towards the ocean. Furthermore, it’s also one of the world’s
fastest ‘galloping glaciers’.

Alpine Glaciers
Valley glaciers
Outlet glaciers can slide away from ice sheets, creating valley glaciers. However, valley glaciers can also
form by themselves in mountain ranges. Starting high up near mountain peaks, a valley glacier will flow
down between the steep sides of two mountains. As a result, the enormous eroding power of the glacier
will cut a U-shaped valley. Steep-sided, flat-floored valleys carved by ancient glaciers can be found in
locations like Yosemite National Park, California.

Hanging glaciers
A hanging glacier will generally begin high in the mountains, feeding into a valley glacier. However,
unlike the smooth meeting of a river with its tributaries, a hanging glaciers tower over the edge of cliff-
faces like enormous frozen waterfalls. For example, the mighty Tronador or ‘thunder’ glacier in northern
Patagonia earned its name from the sound of the ice crashing into the bowl-shaped valley below.

Cirque glaciers
Cirque glaciers occur in mountain ranges where dips and crevasses in the topography allow snow to
collect and compact. When the glaciers form, they begin to erode large, bowl-shaped valleys known as
cirques or corries. Sometimes, cirque glaciers will become so full that they’ll spill over the side of the
mountain, creating valley glaciers. Discover more facts about glaciers in this article: 7 fascinating facts
about Upsala Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park.
Tidewater glaciers
Tidewater glaciers flow into the ocean, either from ice sheets or alpine glaciers. Tidewater glaciers will
‘calve’ ice as they move forward, where parts break off and fall into the ocean. Many of the glaciers in
the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields are tidewater glaciers. Interestingly, due to their
extreme and protracted cycles of advancement and recession, tidewater glaciers are less sensitive to
climate change.

Piedmont glaciers
A piedmont glacier forms when a glacier emerges out of a rocky channel onto a flat plain, creating what
is effectively a gigantic frozen puddle. For example, in the late 1800s explorers described the San Rafael
Glacier in the Northern Patagonian Ice Field as having a large bulbous front called a ‘piedmont lobe’. As
is usual with tidewater glaciers, the San Rafael Glacier has now receded, losing its piedmont front.

Rock glaciers
All glaciers contain some type of rock and debris, known as moraine. However, a glacier is defined as a
rock glacier when it carries a particularly large concentration of debris. Usually, rock glaciers will look
more like a huge, dense mudslide rather than a river of ice. Due to their density, rock glaciers are
particularly slow-moving and can occur as part of ice sheets or alpine glaciers.

Erosional landforms
As the glaciers expand, due to their accumulating weight of snow and ice they crush and abrade and
scour surfaces such as rocks and bedrock. The resulting erosional landforms include striations, cirques,
glacial horns, arêtes, trim lines, U-shaped valleys, roches moutonnées, overdeepenings and hanging
valleys.

 Cirque: Starting location for mountain glaciers

 Cirque stairway: a sequence of cirques
 U-shaped, or trough, valley: U-shaped valleys are created by mountain glaciers. When filled with
ocean water so as to create an inlet, these valleys are called fjords.
 Arête: spiky high land between two glaciers, if the glacial action erodes through, a spillway (or
col) forms
 Valley step: an abrupt change in the longitudinal slope of a glacial valley

QUESTION NO 2
5 THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY:

Location
Most geographic studies begin by learning the location of places. Location can be absolute or relative.
Absolute location: Provides a definite reference for locating a place. The reference can be latitude and
longitude, a street address, or even the Township and Range system. For example, you might be located
at 183 Main Street in Anytown, USA or you might be positioned at 42.2542° N, 77.7906° W.

Relative location: Describes a place with respect to its environment and its connection to other places.
As an example, a home might be located 1.3 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, .4 miles from the town's
elementary school, and 32 miles from the nearest international airport.

Place
Place describes the human and physical characteristics of a location.

Physical characteristics: Includes a description of such things as mountains, rivers, beaches, topography,
climate, and animal and plant life of a place. If a place is described as hot, sandy, fertile, or forested,
these terms all paint a picture of the location's physical characteristics. A topographical map is one tool
used to illustrate the physical characteristics of a location.

Human characteristics: Includes the human-designed cultural features of a place. These features include
land use, architectural styles, forms of livelihood, religious practices, political systems, common foods,
local folklore, means of transportation, and methods of communication. For example, a location could
be described as a technologically advanced French-speaking democracy with a Catholic majority.

Human-Environment Interaction
This theme considers how humans adapt to and modify the environment. Humans shape the landscape
through their interaction with the land, which has both positive and negative effects on the
environment. As an example of the human-environment interaction, think about how people living in
cold climates have often mined coal or drilled for natural gas in order to heat their homes. Another
example would be the massive landfill projects in Boston conducted in the 18th and 19th centuries to
expand habitable areas and improve transportation.

Movement
Humans move—a lot! In addition, ideas, fads, goods, resources, and communication all travel distances.
This theme studies movement and migration across the planet. The emigration of Syrians during war,
the flow of water in the Gulf Stream, and the expansion of cell phone reception around the planet are all
examples of movement.

Regions
Regions divide the world into manageable units for geographic study. Regions have some sort of
characteristic that unifies the area and can be formal, functional, or vernacular.

Formal regions: These are designated by official boundaries, such as cities, states, counties, and
countries. For the most part, they are clearly indicated and publicly known.
Functional regions: These are defined by their connections. For example, the circulation area for a major
city area is the functional region of that paper.

Vernacular regions: These include perceived regions, such as "The South," "The Midwest," or the
"Middle East"; they have no formal boundaries but are understood in mental maps of the world.

QUESTION NO 3
Physical
Physical geography (or physiography) focuses on geography as an Earth science. It aims to understand
the physical problems and the issues of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere, and global
flora and fauna patterns (biosphere). Physical geography is the study of earth's seasons, climate,
atmosphere, soil, streams, landforms, and oceans.

Human
Human geography (or anthropogeography) is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of
patterns and processes that shape the human society. It encompasses the human, political, cultural,
social, and economic aspects.

Integrated

Integrated geography is concerned with the description of the spatial interactions between humans and
the natural world.[8] It requires an understanding of the traditional aspects of physical and human
geography, like the ways that human societies conceptualize the environment. Integrated geography
has emerged as a bridge between human and physical geography, as a result of the increasing
specialization of the two sub-fields. Since the changing of the human relationship with the environment
as a result of globalization and technological change, a new approach was needed to understand the
changing and dynamic relationship. Examples of areas of research in environmental geography include:
emergency management, environmental management, sustainability, and political ecology.

Geomatics
Geomatics is concerned with the application of computers to the traditional spatial techniques used in
cartography and topography. Geomatics emerged from the quantitative revolution in geography in the
mid-1950s. Today, geomatics methods include spatial analysis, geographic information systems (GIS),
remote sensing, and global positioning systems (GPS). Geomatics has led to a revitalization of some
geography departments, especially in Northern America where the subject had a declining status during
the 1950s.

Regional
A branch which is concerned with the description of the unique characteristics of the earth's surface,
resulting in each area from the combination of its complete natural or elements, as of physical and
human environment.[9] The main aim is to understand, or define the uniqueness, or character of a
particular region that consists of natural as well as human elements. Attention is paid also to
regionalization, which covers the proper techniques of space delimitation into regions.

Related fields

Interplanetary sciences: While the discipline of geography is normally concerned with the Earth, the
term can also be informally used to describe the study of other worlds, such as the planets of the Solar
System and even beyond. The study of systems larger than the Earth itself usually forms part of
Astronomy or Cosmology. The study of other planets is usually called planetary science. Alternative
terms such as areology (the study of Mars) have been proposed but are not widely used.

Regional science: In the 1950s, the regional science movement led by Walter Isard arose to provide a
more quantitative and analytical base to geographical questions, in contrast to the descriptive
tendencies of traditional geography programs. Regional science comprises the body of knowledge in
which the spatial dimension plays a fundamental role, such as regional economics, resource

management, location theory, urban and regional planning, transport and communication, human
geography, population distribution, landscape ecology, and environmental quality.

Urban planning, regional planning, and spatial planning: Use the science of geography to assist in
determining how to develop (or not develop) the land to meet particular criteria, such as safety, beauty,
economic opportunities, the preservation of the built or natural heritage, and so on. The planning of
towns, cities, and rural areas may be seen as applied geography.

QUESTION NO 4

HYDROLOGIC CYCLE:
Water cycle, also called hydrologic cycle, cycle that involves the continuous circulation of water in the
Earth-atmosphere system. Of the many processes involved in the water cycle, the most important are
evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and runoff. Although the total amount of water
within the cycle remains essentially constant, its distribution among the various processes is continually
changing.

Evaporation, one of the major processes in the cycle, is the transfer of water from the surface of the
Earth to the atmosphere. By evaporation, water in the liquid state is transferred to the gaseous, or
vapour, state. This transfer occurs when some molecules in a water mass have attained sufficient kinetic
energy to eject themselves from the water surface. The main factors affecting evaporation are
temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation. The direct measurement of evaporation,
though desirable, is difficult and possible only at point locations. The principal source of water vapour is
the oceans, but evaporation also occurs in soils, snow, and ice. Evaporation from snow and ice, the
direct conversion from solid to vapour, is known as sublimation. Transpiration is the evaporation of
water through minute pores, or stomata, in the leaves of plants. For practical purposes, transpiration
and the evaporation from all water, soils, snow, ice, vegetation, and other surfaces are lumped together
and called evapotranspiration, or total evaporation.

Water vapours is the primary form of atmospheric moisture. Although its storage in the atmosphere is
comparatively small, water vapour is extremely important in forming the moisture supply for dew, frost,
fog, clouds, and precipitation. Practically all water vapour in the atmosphere is confined to the
troposphere (the region below 6 to 8 miles [10 to 13 km] altitude).The transition process from the
vapour state to the liquid state is called condensation. Condensation may take place as soon as the air
contains more water vapour than it can receive from a free water surface through evaporation at the
prevailing temperature. This condition occurs as the consequence of either cooling or the mixing of air
masses of different temperatures. By condensation, water vapour in the atmosphere is released to form
precipitation.

Precipitation that falls to the Earth is distributed in four main ways: some is returned to the atmosphere
by evaporation, some may be intercepted by vegetation and then evaporated from the surface of
leaves, some percolates into the soil by infiltration, and the remainder flows directly as surface runoff
into the sea. Some of the infiltrated precipitation may later percolate into streams as groundwater
runoff. Direct measurement of runoff is made by stream gauges and plotted against time on
hydrographs.Most groundwater is derived from precipitation that has percolated through the soil.
Groundwater flow rates, compared with those of surface water, are very slow and variable, ranging
from a few millimetres to a few metres a day. Groundwater movement is studied by tracer techniques
and remote sensing.

Ice also plays a role in the water cycle. Ice and snow on the Earth’s surface occur in various forms such
as frost, sea ice, and glacier ice. When soil moisture freezes, ice also occurs beneath the Earth’s surface,
forming permafrost in tundra climates. About 18,000 years ago glaciers and ice caps covered
approximately one-third of the Earth’s land surface. Today about 12 percent of the land surface remains
covered by ice masses.