Back to Practice Sheet Page

GLACIAL LANDFORM EXERCISE SHEET

        First one must determine whether they are looking at Valley glaciation or Continental glaciation.  Valley glaciers are found in mountainous terrain.  This will usually have closely spaced contour lines indicating steep slopes.  Balley glaciers tend to make the topography sharper and more pronounced than the pre-existing stream created landscape.  Typically the landforms created are erosional.

Glacially Carved Valley        Commonly referred to as a U-shaped valley, the valleys tend to be broad with steep valley       
                                            walls on either side.  The contour lines will frequently show a "U" shape.

Hanging Valley                    Created by a tributary glacier to a larger glacier.  The valley is separated from the main U-
                                            shaped valley by a steep wall and may have a waterfall emptying into the main valley.

Horn                                    Horn shaped mountain peak that was shaped by glaciation on the sides of the mountain.

Cirque                                  Spoon-shaped depression typically high up on the side of the mountain.

Tarn                                     A lake in a cirque.

Pater Noster Lakes               A series of lakes separated by a stream and found in a glacially carved valley.

Arete                                    A knife edged ridge that separates two glacially carved valleys.  Typically found high
                                            up on the side of a mountain.

Lateral Moraines                    Although they are found in a glacially carved valley, they are usually best seen where the
                                            glacier emptied into a larger unglaciated valley.  There they appear as two long ridges
                                            of sediment going from the mountain side out into an unglaciated valley.

        Continental glaciation tends to cover and smooth over the preexisting landscape.  Typically the landforms created are those of deposition.

End Moraine                        Ridge of hummocky appearing sediment.  On one side the topography is relative flat, the
                                            outwash plain.  On the other is the swell and swale of the ground moraine.

Esker                                    A long sinuous ridge of sediment snaking across the landscape.  It is form by a stream
                                            flowing under the glacier.

Kettle                                    A lake associated with an end moraine that formed by the melting of a chunk of ice.

Drumlins                                Streamline shaped hills composed of sediment that has been reworked by an advancing
                                            glacier.  the steep side faces into the direction the ice came from while the gentle side points in
                                            the direction that the ice moved.

picture

        The arrows point to some streamlined shaped hills.  The general topography is hummucky.  Are these features of a continental ice sheet or a mountain glacier?  What are they.

picture

        The quality of this is not a good as some, but the boxes cover two long sinuous hills or ridges.  First ask yourself is this a continental ice sheet feature or a mountain glacier feature?  Then determine what it is?

picture

        Is this a mountainous area?  The red arrows are pointing to Ptarmigan Wall.  Look at this feature and describe it.  What is it?

        Arrows marked A are pointing at several glaciers along a ridge line.  Underneath these glaciers is a spoon shaped depression.  What is it?

        Arrow marked B is pointing at a mountain top.  What is it?

picture

        note the valley that Mono Village is located in.  Is this a stream cut valley or a glacially cut valley?  How do you tell?

        Coming in from the south are two valleys, tributary valleys.  Each has a water fall in it.  Note how steep the valley wall is just north of the word "fall" in each of the valleys.  What type of valley are these?

picture

        Are we dealing with a mountain glacier or a continental ice sheet?  Note that just north and south of Turquoise Lake there appears to be a steep gradient.  The red arrows mark a mound of sediment that ponds water to create Turquoise Lake.  What is the mound of sediment called?