Dynamic Planet Science Olympiad Vocabulary - Edit

Fjords

is an inlet formed by the marine submergence of formerly glaciated valleys and depressions within a rocky glaciated terrain of low relief

Firn

granular snow, especially on the upper part of a glacier, where it has not yet been compressed into ice.

Properties of ice

The specific heat of ice at the freezing point is 2.04 kilojoules per kilogram per degree Celsius. The thermal conductivity at this temperature is 2.24 watts per metre kelvin. Another property of importance to the study of glaciers is the lowering of the melting point due to hydrostatic pressure: 0.0074 °C per bar.

Ice crystal structure

In an ice crystal the water molecules are arranged in layers of hexagonal rings. ... The hexagonal ring structure of an ice crystal

Glacial ice formations

Under the pressure of the layers of ice and snow above it, this granular ice fuses into denser and denser firn. Over a period of years, layers of firn undergo further compaction and become glacial ice. Glacier ice is slightly less dense than ice formed from frozen water because it contains tiny trapped air bubbles.

Glacial snow formations

Snow cover, also called snowpack, is the total of all the snow and ice on the ground. It includes both new snow and previous snow and ice that have not melted. New snow is a recent snow deposit in which the original form of the ice crystals can be recognized. ... This type of snow is associated with glacier formation.

Accumulation zones

the area above the firn line, where snowfall accumulates and exceeds the losses from ablation, (melting, evaporation, and sublimation). The accumulation zone is also defined as the part of a glacier's surface, usually at higher elevations, on which there is net accumulation of snow, which subsequently turns into firn and then glacier ice.

Equilibrium line

The annual equilibrium line separates the accumulation and ablation zone annually. Is the amount of snow loss compared to the amount gained.

Influence of bed- Wet ground

Causes the glacier to move faster because of less friction causes the glacier to melt faster indirect. As well this could cause under ice rivers.

Influence of bed- Sediment

Creates divits in the ground where the glacier has been examples are the great lakes

Influence of bed- Dry ground

Causes friction could pick up rocks and other objects left behind by plant and animal life. After the glacier melts the objects picked up will deposit.

Influence of bed- Bare rock

Causes friction slows the glacier down also creates starvation on the rock. Examples are the finger lakes

Alpine Cirque

amphitheater-like valley formed by glacial erosion.

Alpine Hanging

has been widened and deepened by glacial erosion, leaving the side valley cut off abruptly from the main valley below.

Alpine Piedmont

spill into relatively flat plains, where they spread out into bulb-like lobes.

Continental

is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2

Ice Stream

is a region of an ice sheet that moves significantly faster than the surrounding ice.

Ice Rise

is a clearly defined elevation of the otherwise totally flat ice shelf, typically dome-shaped and rising 100 to 200 metres above the surrounding ice shelf.

Icefalls

_______ often happen when glaciers flow over a steep drop or squeeze through narrow places. That portion of glacier ice flows faster and becomes heavily crevassed.

Ogives

are alternating bands of light and dark ice that form on some glaciers just below icefalls. The ice flows faster down the center of the glacier, forming ridged arcs of ice that bend downstream.

Surface Melt

this water that melts off the top off the glacier permeates through the glacier and ends up in under glacial lakes and rivers.

Surface Lakes

are lakes created on the surface of a glacer the water then finds its way to underglaical lakes or rivers.

Drainage

glacial rivers will form and relocate the water eather down hill or in a hole created by the glacier.

Moulins

a vertical or nearly vertical shaft in a glacier, formed by surface water percolating through a crack in the ice.

Subglacial Lakes

may cause changes in ice flow, by draining rapidly and lubricating the ice-bed interface, allowing ice streams to flow even more rapidly. Despite the fact that they are overlain by up to 4000 m of dense ice, changes in __________ lake levels are observable at the ice surface. Recent inventories have found 379 lakes in Antarctica - and we are bound to find more

Jokulhlaups

is a type of glacial outburst flood. It is an Icelandic term that has been adopted in glaciological terminology in many languages. Ice river

Ice Shelf

a floating sheet of ice permanently attached to a landmass.

Ice Cap

a covering of ice over a large area, especially on the polar region of a planet.

Ice Tongue

is a long and narrow sheet of ice projecting out from the coastline.

Crevasses

a deep open crack, especially one in a glacier. That the ice is moving away from the main glacier. This happens because of ice melt.

Greenhouse Gases

ice cores can tell us about past levels of greenhouse gases and how they affect the Glaciers. Theses effects can range from huge changes in ice levels and in colder climates they can gain more height

Isolation

exposure of an object to the sun. Intensity of incoming solar radiation incident on a unit horizontal surface at a specific level.

Aerosols

quite-short lived, cause a hole in the ozone layer and can create faster melting speed on glaciers.

Sea Level Changes

caused by many factors but, glacial melt and also gravitational forces caused by the moon through theses changes are not permanent.

Ice Sheet Variations

caused by ether global cooling and warming, there are also affected by gravity pulling ice toward the core.

Isostatic Effects on Earth Crust

glaciers create hole in the crust, theses holes can range from the size of ponds to the size of the great lakes the

Neoproterozoic

The most severe glaciation known in the geologic record occurred during the Cryogenian, when ice sheets reached the equator and formed a possible "Snowball Earth"

Late Paleozoic

attributed to a decrease in atmospheric CO2 concentrations associated with expansion of land plants, as plants both enhance silicate rock weathering—which consumes CO2—and increase the storage of organic carbon on land. However, plant expansion and carbon uptake substantially predate glaciation.

Eocene Oligocene

this ice age has no real reason for this ice age but some guesses are impacts and volcanic activities.

Pleistocene

the last ice age caused by the rise of land in what is now panama this then forced cold water to move up the eastern american cost. We are in the warming period of this ice age.

Ice Cores

The ratio of "light" oxygen-16 to "heavy" oxygen-18 in a sample, for instance, reveals the global temperature when the ice formed; it takes colder temperatures for water vapor containing the lighter oxygen isotope to turn into precipitation. Examining the gasses trapped in ice cores is how scientists first learned that the amount of carbon dioxide and the global temperature have been linked at least the last million years of Earth's history.

A Milankovitch cycle

Changes in the shape earth's orbit and tilt that cause glacial periods and interglacial periods.

Laurentide Ice Sheet

including most of Canada and a large portion of the northern United States, multiple times during the Quaternary glacial epochs

Water level rise

in terms of sea level contribution, on the order of about 1 millimeter per year

Altimetry

how high the glacier is and how much water it has

Landsat

the direction the glacier is moving

Seismology

similar to those of shallow crustal rocks. Thus, internal and boundary dynamic processes, as well as internal structures, of Earth's glaciers and other cryospheric features, are fully amenable to study via seismological methods.

Gravity

Glaciers can affect

Larsen B

3,250 square kilometers, or 1,250 square miles in January 31 and April 13, 2002

Kilimanjaro

(<5700 m) glacier, located in Africa

Amundsen Sea Embayment

from 1992 to 2011 the Smith and Kohler glaciers retreated 35 kilometers

Cryospheric

is the frozen water part of the Earth

Kame terrace

a flat-topped mound or hill composed of sorted sand and gravel deposited by meltwater in a former glacial lake

Fjords

a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, as in Norway and Iceland, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley.

Cirque glacier

glacier formed in a bowl shaped depression in mountains

valley glacier

glaciers that flow through valleys in mountains, these are sometimes cirque glaciers that escaped their depression.

Piedmont glaciers

a valley glacier that flows out into an open field, they usually spread out into a fan, or a bulb shape. When multiple of these come together, they form ice fields and ice sheets.

ice fields

large areas of interconnected glaciers, they usually cover everything but the mountain peaks, which are called nunatuks when they stick out of the ice.

outlet glaciers

when ice fields feed out ice to a valley beyond the coverage of the ice field.

tidewater glaciers

when a glacier reaches a water body, and it terminates at the shore line, and starts calving pieces into the ocean.

hanging glacier

when a valley glacier retreats to a high plain, but a part is still resting on the slope of the previously carved valley.

ice streams

narrow and flat parts of a glacial system that flows much faster then the glacier, they are heavily crevassed and are known to have abrupt shear margins.

ice sheet

a mass of glacial land ice greater than 50,000 km^2

subglacial lakes

lakes contained deep within the layers of an ice sheet

ice shelves

glacial ice that is connected to a landmass, and floats, or extends out towards the sea.

ice rise

when ice gets on top of rock in the seabed, these happen to ice shelves, they are usually dome shaped.

ice cap

a mass of glacial ice that covers less than 50,000 km^2

ice tongue

a long and narrow sheet of ice projecting out from the coastline to the ocean.

crevasses

cracks in a glaciers surface usually caused by moving over a rocky terrain {indicates the glacier is flowing over rocky terrain}

icefalls

when a glaciers flow through a really steep surface or has to squeeze through a tight space, and moves really fast and stretches and thins and becomes heavily crevassed. {indicates flow is down a steep surface or into a tight space}

ogives

Alternating bands of light and dark ice that forms ridges. Dark= summer, Light=winter. They kind of bend towards the middle. {indicates the middle of the glacier flows faster than the sides}

cirque

A bowl shaped basin carved by a glacier (erosional)

tor

a high rock, a high rocky hill, or pile of rocks

u-shaped valley

The shape of a valley formed by the erosion of a glacier

hanging valley

A valley left by a melted tributary glacier that enters a larger glacial valley above its base, high up on the valley wall.

arete

a sharp parallel ridge of rock formed when two cirque glaciers come together but don't join.

horns

a pyramidal peak that forms when three or more cirque glaciers that come together.

Grooves & striations

they are gouged and scratched into the bedrock as the glaciers move downstream.

roche moutonnee

a knob of bedrock that is carved into an asymmetrical hill, and in the "stoss" end, the glacier smooths it out by abrasion, and the "lee" end, the glacier does plucking.

drumlins

small hill or mound in a streamlined shape that is made out of deposited till. Stoss end is the steep side with a possible resistant rock, and the lee end is the smoothed out end. The ice flow is from stoss end to lee end

kames

smaller than drumlins, irregular shaped mounds of deposit that accumulate as a glacier retreats.

esker

long ridge of material deposited by a melt water stream flowing beneath a glacier

kettles

bits of glacial ice that breaks and forms a depression in the ground, then melting, forming these.

erratics

rocks and boulders that are picked up and transported by a glacier and left when the glacier melts, these rocks usually are "native" to the area they are left in.

till

The sediments deposited directly by a glacier

moraine

glacial debris that is classified based on how it is deposited

entrainment

a glacier picking up loose material around it, this can happen by regelation or the glacier just picking it up.

reccessional moraine

when the glacier is in a general retreat, and it stagnates or advances, sediment is deposited, and this is what it's called. These are behind the terminal moraine.

terminal moraine

the deposit that marks the furthest advance of the glacier

englacial debris

sediment carried within the body of a glacier

plucking

the glacier freezing onto masses of rock, and glacier flow causing this mass being pulled and broken off, and carried by the glacier.

supraglacial debris

Material transported on the surface of the glacier, medial moraines and lateral moraines are supraglacial debris

lateral moraine

material that has been pushed off to the sides by the glacier.

medial moraine

when two valley glaciers converge, their lateral moraines come together and this is the outcome.

ground moraine

a layer of till under the glacier (subglacial

debris) deposited as the glacier retreats

supraglacial lakes

lakes formed by surface melt

swamp zone

firn in the accumulation zone that is saturated with water caused by surface melt.

surface melt

ablation on the surface

moulins

A cylindrical, vertical shaft that extends through a glacier and transports water from the surface to the base. They are carved by melt water from the glacier's surface. they can lubricate the base, and speed up flow.

drainage

melt water moving from moulins, crevasses, and other holes to englacial or subglacial systems