Using Case Studies And Examples, Describe And Explain The Landforms Found In The Glacial Landscape

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Using Case Studies And Examples, Describe And Explain The Landforms Found In The Glacial Landscape

It appears that roughly every 200-250 million years in the Earth's history there have been major periods of ice activity. The most recent of these occurred during the Pleistocene period of the Quaternary era. In the 2 million years since the onset of the Quaternary, there have been fluctuations in global temperature of between 5°C and 6°C, which have led to glacials and interglacials. In these periods, glaciers form and create many different landforms, either through erosion or deposition.

Glaciers are capable of moving large quantities of debris. The rock debris may be transported in one of three ways:

- Supraglacial debris is carried on the surface of the glacier as lateral and medial moraine

- Englacial debris is material carried within the body of a glacier

- Subglacial debris is moved along the floor of the valley by the ice, or by meltwater streams formed by pressure melting.

Ice that is stationary or contains little debris has limited erosive power, whereas moving ice carrying with it much morainic material can drastically alter the landscape. Virtually all the