Glaciers: What are they and how do they work?

Starter (on your file paper)... By yourself, from your knowledge from the past two lessons, write down what you think a glacier is. Now, compare your answer with your partners. Are they similar or different? See if you can come up with a joint and improved definition together.

Now, lets hear some ideas and create a class definition for your glossary sheet.

Learning Objectives:
To discover and define what a glacier is

To discuss the glacial budget

To assess how a glacier acts as a system

A glacier is... ... a large mass of ice that slowly moves over land, usually downhill.

But...
... they can be divided into two different types; a valley glacier and an ice sheet.

A valley glacier is a glacier that is confined within a valley, usually in upland areas like mountain ranges. An ice sheet is a larger glacier that covers the whole land surface of a much larger area, like in Antarctica or Greenland.

Watch this video clip that explains the formation of glaciers. So, we now know what a glacier is, how it moves and also that it can grow or shrink. We call this growing and shrinking advance and retreat; the degree to which they advance or retreat all depends on the glacial budget.

Just like many geographical phenomena, glaciers behave as a system...

A glacier behaves as a system. It has inputs, stores, flows and outputs.

Read through these options and put them in the correct box on your worksheet. Some are to do with inputs, some stores, some flows and some outputs. All are key parts of the glacial system.

Precipitation in the form of falling snow in the zone of accumulation, from avalanches or directly onto the glacier.

The glacier acts as a store of water.

More and more snow falls and the underlying layers are compressed into ice.

Rocks, boulders, stones and other debris are also trapped within the glacier.

One by one the snow and ice particles slip forward on the thin film of water and immediately refreeze.

An output from the system is meltwater. There is also a small amount of evaporation into the atmosphere.

This causes the glacier to move slowly downhill.

Which is which...?
Accumulation: Ablation: This is when there is a loss of ice. It is when the amount of meltwater coming off the glacier is greater than the amount of fresh snowfall replacing it. This means the glacier retreats. This means that glaciers can form. It is when the amount of snow that falls on the glacier (usually in Autumn/Winter) is greater than the amount that melts (usually in Spring/Summer). This means the glacier advances.

At this point in time, in the Holocene, are we seeing more accumulation or more ablation? How do we know?

What evidence might there be to say that glaciers are retreating? What is the suggested cause? Watch this video clip.

Plenary:
Try to come up with an analogy to remember that glaciers can either advance or retreat. For example, when youre lying in bed and youre cold, you pull the duvet right up to your chin. But when youre hot, you pull the duvet down to your waist. The duvet is the glacier; when its cold, it advances and when its hot, it retreats!

Im sure you can come up with a better analogy!

Next lesson, we are going to look at our case study of a glacier, called the Franz Josef Glacier.