Dynamic Planet Cheat Sheet Essay Example
Definition of glaciers: areas of snow and ice that have accumulated over many years and have at some time flowed
II. Types of glaciers A. Mountain (or cirque): fill bowl-like depressions that may be a few square kilometers B. Valley glaciers: flow through valleys and may be enlarged by cirque glaciers C. Piedmont glaciers: valley glaciers that flow out of the valley and onto the adjacent plain D. Icefields: massive collections of glaciers E. Ice sheets: largest accumulations of glaciers F. Rock glaciers
III Formation of glaciers
A. Latitude
B. Elevation: each 1000-foot change in elevation causes a 3˚ change in temperature
C. Slant of rays from the sun: glaciers have a better chance of surviving on the sides facing away from the sun
D. Prevailing wind direction: Snow is blown from the windward to the leeward sides of mountains. Prevailing Westerlies in the U.S. blow from west to east.
IV. Glacial history
A. When glaciers advance from polar regions toward the equator
B. Quaternary Period: Past 1.6 million years
1. Pleistocene Epoch: from the beginning of the Quarternary Period to the end of the last glaciation
2. Holocene Epoch: 10,000 years ago to present
C. Interglacial Periods: ~ 20,000 years in length according to ice core studies
V. Mechanisms responsible for formation and maintenance of glaciers: a change of ~ 6˚ below present world temperatures can mean a return to a glacial period A. Solar variability: a change in the amount of energy produced by the sun B. Insolation: amount of the sun’s energy that strikes Earth’s surface 1. Eccentricity. Earth’s orbital path around the sun 2. Obliquity. Variation in the tilt of Earth’s axis over a 41,000 year cycle 3. Precession. Wobble of Earth’s axis C. Dust 1. Particles from Earth’s surface carried into the atmosphere 2. Dust particles reflect incoming solar ultraviolet rays causing Earth’s surface to cool 3. Includes wind-eroded
II. Types of glaciers A. Mountain (or cirque): fill bowl-like depressions that may be a few square kilometers B. Valley glaciers: flow through valleys and may be enlarged by cirque glaciers C. Piedmont glaciers: valley glaciers that flow out of the valley and onto the adjacent plain D. Icefields: massive collections of glaciers E. Ice sheets: largest accumulations of glaciers F. Rock glaciers
III Formation of glaciers
A. Latitude
B. Elevation: each 1000-foot change in elevation causes a 3˚ change in temperature
C. Slant of rays from the sun: glaciers have a better chance of surviving on the sides facing away from the sun
D. Prevailing wind direction: Snow is blown from the windward to the leeward sides of mountains. Prevailing Westerlies in the U.S. blow from west to east.
IV. Glacial history
A. When glaciers advance from polar regions toward the equator
B. Quaternary Period: Past 1.6 million years
1. Pleistocene Epoch: from the beginning of the Quarternary Period to the end of the last glaciation
2. Holocene Epoch: 10,000 years ago to present
C. Interglacial Periods: ~ 20,000 years in length according to ice core studies
V. Mechanisms responsible for formation and maintenance of glaciers: a change of ~ 6˚ below present world temperatures can mean a return to a glacial period A. Solar variability: a change in the amount of energy produced by the sun B. Insolation: amount of the sun’s energy that strikes Earth’s surface 1. Eccentricity. Earth’s orbital path around the sun 2. Obliquity. Variation in the tilt of Earth’s axis over a 41,000 year cycle 3. Precession. Wobble of Earth’s axis C. Dust 1. Particles from Earth’s surface carried into the atmosphere 2. Dust particles reflect incoming solar ultraviolet rays causing Earth’s surface to cool 3. Includes wind-eroded