Evidence for Glaciers

Erratics
Striations
Polished Bedrock
Erratic
 Erratic
 Boulder-sized rock
dumped by a
glacier
 Rock is different
type than
surrounding rocks
Striations
 Striations/ Chatter marks
 Grooves carved
into bedrock
 Formed by
abrasive action of
cobbles and
pebbles carried at
bottom of glacier
 Direction of
scratches shows
direction glacier
moved
 Glacial polish
 Smooth rock
surfaces
 Created as glaciers
flow over bedrock
Glacial Pavement….
Luis María Benítez.
Source unknown
The Upper Grindelwald Glacier and the Schreckhorn,
in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.
ZONE
OF
ACCUMULATION

ZONE
OF
ABLATION

Adrian Pingstone
crevasses
A great fissure or
crack in a glacier.
 They can be more than 30 m deep
 TOP LAYER OF GLACIER
CAN FRACTURE…..BRITTLE BEHAVIOR
FROMS CREVASSES
The Perito-Moreno Glacier, Argentina

http://www.chmouel.com/geeklog/gallery/gallery_individual.php/argentina/8.html
Original valley
(V-shaped)

Glaciers come
and alter
landforms

Glaciers retreat
and new
features appear
 Landscape Features-
Valley Glaciers
 CIRQUES:
 semi-circular shaped bedrock feature
 created as a glacier scours back toward the mountain
 ARÊTES:
steep-sided, sharp-edged bedrock ridge
 formed by two glaciers eroding away
on opposite sides of a ridge
TARNS:
glacial lakes
produced by glacial scouring
often found in cirques

TARN

CIRQUE
 HORNS:
 3 or more cirques adjacent to one
another
Hanging Valley
ARÊTE CIRQUE

HANGING
VALLEY
U-SHAPED
VALLEY
U-shaped valley
 till
Unsorted and
unstratified rock
material deposited
dirtectly by glacial
ice.
 Landforms made from
glacial till are called
moraines.
Glacial till sediment, in some
places hundreds of feet
thick, covers most of New
York State.

24
 All the ‘stuff’ that’s pushed out of the way by the
glacier gets piled up in a big heap, called moraine.

Medial moraine
Lateral moraine

Terminal moraine
Lateral moraine

Dirk Beyer
Lateral moraine
 Moraines
Chugach
Mountains,
Alaska

Medial Moraine

Image by Bruce
Molnia, Terra
Image by Michael
Photographics
 MORAINES: material left behind
when glacier recedes
 Kettle Lake
Drumlins

a i n
Esker pl
s h
w a
u t
Till O
Moraine-dammed
lake Glacial
Terminal Moraine Stream
Drumlin
drumlins
Kettle Lakes
esker
A long, winding
ridge formed
when sand and
gravel fill
meltwater
tunnels
beneath a
glacier.
Eskers
kame A small, cone-
shaped, steep
sided hill of
stratified sand
and gravel
formed at a
glacial front by
meltwater
carrying
sediment off
the glacier’s
surface.
 KAME (WISCONSIN)

Have sorted sediments

http://www.env.duke.edu/eos/geo41/gla2.htm
outwash

When a
glacier
melts,
its rock
load
remains
in nearly
the
same
place as
in the
glacier.
Outwash plain
An outwash
plain will be
crossed by
many
meltwater
streams.