valley glaciers is a glacier usually originating in a cirque at a valley head and flowing downward between the walls of a valley. A continental glacier is covers many miles covering the continent . a rock that is moved on the Earth's surface by water, wind, ice or gravity.
What is one main difference between continental glaciers and valley glaciers?
Valley glaciers can flow in all directions as they move, while continental glaciers move down slopes already cut by rivers . Valley glaciers cover much of a continent, while continental glaciers cover a small area of mountains. Continental glaciers are long and narrow, while valley glaciers are wider in size.
What are the major similarities and differences between Alpine glaciers continental glaciers and ice caps?
Continental glaciers form in a central location with ice moving outward in all directions . Alpine glaciers form in high mountains and travel through valleys. Ice caps cover large areas. Because glaciers move, they have characteristic features like crevasses and bergshrunds.
How are continental glaciers different?
Continental glaciers are continuous masses of ice that are much larger than alpine glaciers. Small continental glaciers are called ice fields. Big continental glaciers are called ice sheets. Greenland and Antarctica are almost entirely covered with ice sheets that are up to 3500 m (11 500 ft) thick.
Are continental glaciers and alpine glaciers similar?
Glaciers fall into two groups: alpine glaciers and ice sheets. Alpine glaciers form on mountainsides and move downward through valleys. ... The largest ice sheets, called continental glaciers, spread over vast areas. Today, continental glaciers cover most of Antarctica and the island of Greenland.
What are the two main types of glaciers?
- Mountain glaciers. These glaciers develop in high mountainous regions, often flowing out of icefields that span several peaks or even a mountain range. ...
- Valley glaciers. ...
- Tidewater glaciers. ...
- Piedmont glaciers. ...
- Hanging glaciers. ...
- Cirque glaciers. ...
- Ice aprons. ...
- Rock glaciers.
What are the two continental glaciers that remain today?
Earth's two current continental glaciers, the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets , comprise about 99% of Earth's glacial ice, and approximately 68% of Earth's fresh water. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is vastly larger than the Greenland Ice Sheet (Figure 17.4) and contains about 17 times as much ice.
Why do glaciers look blue?
Glacier ice is blue because the red (long wavelengths) part of white light is absorbed by ice and the blue (short wavelengths) light is transmitted and scattered. The longer the path light travels in ice, the more blue it appears.
Do continental glaciers melt?
Scientists have seriously underestimated just how much water will melt off continent-sized glaciers, aka ice sheets, that are shrinking because of Earth's increasingly hot atmosphere.
What are the two main processes by which glaciers move?
Glaciers move by a combination of (1) deformation of the ice itself and (2) motion at the glacier base . At the bottom of the glacier, ice can slide over bedrock or shear subglacial sediments.
How many continental glaciers exist on earth today?
There are about 198,000 to 200,000 glaciers in the world.
What are the similarities between valley glaciers and continental glaciers?
valley glaciers is a glacier usually originating in a cirque at a valley head and flowing downward between the walls of a valley. A continental glacier is covers many miles covering the continent. a rock that is moved on the Earth's surface by water, wind, ice or gravity.
How are continental glaciers formed?
When new snow falls, they bury the granular ones, and the hard ice gets compressed further. The dense, grainy ice becomes firn. ... Ice sheets tend to flatten as more ice accumulates over it and then spread across to form layers . These sheets gradually cover the entire area, thereby creating continental glaciers.
What are the 4 types of glaciers?
- Ice Sheets. Ice sheets are continental-scale bodies of ice. ...
- Ice Fields and Ice Caps. Ice fields and ice caps are smaller than ice sheets (less than 50,000 sq. ...
- Cirque and Alpine Glaciers. ...
- Valley and Piedmont Glaciers. ...
- Tidewater and Freshwater Glaciers. ...
- Rock Glaciers.
Which type of glaciers are the largest?
Continental ice sheets are the largest glaciers. They now occur only in Greenland and Antarctica.
Which country has most glaciers?
| GTN-G region Region Name Glacier area, km 2 | 1 Alaska 98531.7 | 2 Western Canada and USA 14380.4 | 3 Arctic Canada, North 111589 | 4 Arctic Canada, South 40888.2 |
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