GlaciationCGC1D1

Glaciers have played an important role in the shaping of landscapes in the middle and high latitudes and in alpine environments. Their ability to erode soil and rock, transport sediment, and deposit

sediment is extraordinary. During the last glacial period more than 50 million square kilometers of land surface were geomorphically

influenced by the presence of glaciers.

•This illustration shows how the plucking process is carried out. Notice how rocks are dislodged from the surface and dragged by the ice flow. This is one of the most important erosion process produced by a glacier

•This illustration shows how a glacial landscape is created. Notice the glacier’s flows modifies the surrounded landscape.

•This illustration renders a retreating glacier and its effects on the surrounding landscape.

During the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary Ice Age, glaciers (represented on map in white) covered much of the

Earth’s northern hemisphere. Ice Ages consist of glacial periods and warmer interglacial periods

Mt. Rainer in Washington State

Buchan Gulf, Baffin Island, seen from Baffin Bay. This huge marine embayment is the intersection of several major fjords which have been eroded into a 1,000 m high plateau by glaciers draining Baffin Island ice caps and continental ice sheets during the last 2-3 million years.

Medial moraines, AK.

Ogives, Alaskan glacier.

Polar Glaciation in Greenland

Polar Glaciation in Greenland

Icefall, Nabesna glacier, AK.

Calving glacier, Johns Hopkins glacier, Glacier Bay, AK.

Several retreating unnamed, small valley glaciers and several recently deglacierized cirques and ridges north of the terminus of Tonsina Glacier, northcentral Chugach Mountains, Alaska.

Rock table, Palisade glacier, CA.

Retreating glacier, Mt. Waddington area, B.C.

Debris along a shear plane protecting ice from ablation, Breidamerkujokul, Iceland.

Glacial groove in preCambrian Gowganda tillite, Ontario, Canada.

Glacially scoured bedrock, Findeln glacier, Switzerland.

Debris cones, Breidamurkurjokull, Iceland.

A sharp rise in the volume of water

produced by melting ice in Greenland has

prompted scientists to warn of faster-than-expected rising sea

levels.

Images of Melting Glaciers

Videoclips Melting Himalayan Glaciers

Video:http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=Nature+Glaciated+landscape&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=melting+himalayan+glaciers&hl=en&emb=0

Melting Artic Glaciers Spell Disaster Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q53ikp947E

Global Warming Creates World's First Climate Change Refugees Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHtqe2nhXiM

Google Earth Climate Introductory Tour Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ygf-puKm0&feature=player_embedded#

Climate Change Sees First Refugees

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/699528