Physical geographyLesson 4 of 5 in the course Glaciers and periglacial processes

Ice Sheets: Structure, Dynamics, History, and Climate Effects

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

This lesson introduces ice sheets, explains how they differ from other glaciers, and shows how they grow and are shaped.

An ice sheet, also called a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice covering surrounding terrain over an area greater than 50,000 km². Ice sheets are the largest glacial bodies on Earth. Smaller forms include ice caps, ice fields, and individual glaciers.

All flashcards

Marine ice-sheet instability (MISI)
A potential self-reinforcing retreat of grounded ice below sea level as its grounding line retreats.
Marine ice-cliff instability (MICI)
A debated hypothesis that tall exposed ice cliffs may collapse and sustain retreat.
Supraglacial lake
A lake that forms on the surface of an ice sheet.
Dansgaard–Oeschger event
A rapid warming event recorded in Northern Hemisphere climate records.
Ice-rafted debris
Rock material transported by icebergs and deposited when they melt.

Quiz questions

  1. What boundary marks the transition from grounded ice to floating ice?Answer: The grounding line.
  2. What characterizes marine ice-sheet instability (MISI)?Answer: Grounding-line retreat can promote further ice loss and retreat.
  3. How can a stable ice shelf affect grounded ice behind it?Answer: It can buttress the ice and resist its flow.
  4. What are Heinrich events?Answer: Large iceberg-release episodes from the Laurentide Ice Sheet into the North Atlantic.
  5. Why does melting floating ice not raise sea level in the same way as melting land ice?Answer: Floating ice already displaces seawater.

Based on the Wikipedia article Ice sheet, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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