Glaciers and Cold Environments

What this unit covers

The resources split into two broad themes: glacial environments and periglacial, or cold, environments. On the glacial side you will find material on how snow turns into ice, glacier budgets, types of glacier, ice sheets, glacier movement and erosion. On the periglacial side there are notes on permafrost, ice wedges, thermokarst, pingos and palsas, and snow and slopes.

Where to start

Begin with a broad mind map. Glaciated Landscapes moves from formation and location through processes of erosion, such as freeze-thaw action, abrasion and plucking, to features like the corrie, arete, pyramidal peak and U-shaped valley. The mind map called Glaciers explains how snow transforms into ice as air is squeezed out through compaction.

Then move to the flashcards. Glacial Erosion Landforms covers terms such as arete, corrie, crag and tail, fjord, glacial trough, hanging valley, ribbon lake, roche moutonnée and truncated spur. Periglacial Landforms does the same for pingos, ice wedge polygons, nivation hollows, scree slopes and stone sorted polygons.

Case studies and deeper reading

1. The Athabasca Glacier mind map looks at an outlet valley glacier in the Canadian Rockies.
2. The Younger Dryas note asks you to examine evidence for abrupt climate change.
3. The notes Lecture 1 - Introduction and French Ch. 5 explain cold wet and cold dry environments and how permafrost is defined.

Using quizzes and maps together

Read a mind map first, then take a quiz such as Glacial or Periglacial Environments Lecture 1 to see what stuck. Where an answer is shaky, go back to the matching map or flashcard set and look again. The mix suits GCSE Geography and A-level Geography revision as well as university study.

Where it sits

This unit belongs to the Surface Processes and Landscapes strand of Geology and earth sciences. Choose one resource today and see how far it takes you.