Nail Salon & Glaciers??

So, okay getting your nails done has nothing to do with Glaciers BUT today whilst getting my graduation nails touched up at a local beauty salon, i over heard the owner talking about her holiday where she was skiing in the glaciers! Just proves more people are aware of them than we think!

What is a Glacier?

Aim: To be able to define different types of glacier.

Firstly take a look at this video which provides a fairly simple introduction to Glaciers. Feeling clever? Try and answer the two questions at the end!

Bitesize Glaciers 

So as already identified a glacier is: A mass of snow and ice which, if it accumulates to sufficient thickness, deforms under its own weight and flows moving slowly down a valley.

But there are many different types of glacier:

TEMPERATE (ALPINE): release huge amounts of meltwater in summer, which reduces friction by aiding lubrication of the ice. Move by basal flow, extending/compressing flow, creep and surges. More likely to erode, transport and deposit material.

POLAR: Occur in regions permanently below 0°C where no melting occurs. Therefore movement is slower and move by Internal Flow. Less erosion, transportation and deposition occurs. 

And yet to make things even more complicated there are yet more varieties of glaciers:

ICE SHEET/ICE CAP: This is where the ice builds up as a dome over the underlying topography. These domes are normally drained by outlet glaciers. Very dense and found in Greenland and Antarctica.

Figure 1: Image showing an Ice Sheet. (Reference: SPRI) 

ICE SHELF: This is where the ice forms a floating sheet in a topographic embayment (a gap in the coastline) and flows towards the open sea where it floats. These are the parts that break off, once weakened and cause ice bergs. These can reach up to 1000 m. Anyone remember the titanic? 

 

Figure 2: Image showing Titanic (Reference: UlsterPrints)

MOUNTAIN GLACIERS: These are constrained by the underlying topography of the mountains and form a wide variety of types including a valley glacier, cirque and piedmont. 

IN PRACTICE: Students would be asked to go research an example/case study in groups with each group being assigned a different type of glacier and present them back to the class. This will enable them to remember their own examples more readily if they have done the ground work to research them. It’s all about self learning!

References:

Goudie, A (Ed) (1995) The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Physical Geography. 2nd Edition. Blackwell, Oxford.

Redfern, D & Skinner, M (2005) Advanced Geography. 2nd Edition. Philip Allan Updates, Oxfordshire.

NEW YORK ! NEW YORK!

New York & Glaciers? Huh?

Aim: To understand the relationship between glaciers and New York.


Recognise this scene?

Figure 1: Image of the notorious New York Manhattan Skyline

Glaciers have just not shaped remote isolated highlands, they have also influenced landscapes closer to home. In this case: the island at the centre of New York, home to Manhattan.

Here the skyline has a dip in height in the centre, which is a direct result of the the ice age.

20 000 years ago the city was at the edge of the northern hemisphere ice sheet and would have towered over any modern day sky scraper.

Figure 2: Image showing how the ice sheet would have looked against New York.

Once the ice had retreated it revealed solid bedrock known as 'Schist' available to provide foundation material for the towering sky scrapers New York is so famous for. Without this bedrock the buildings couldn't have been built so tall.

Figure 3: Image of New York and it's foundations. 

The image above illustrated the bedrock supporting the city's buildings. The shaded yellow areas are softer material that was deposited by the ice and therefore can't support the skyscrapers that the surrounding Schist can. Hence a dip in the skyline. 

I wonder what other famous cityscapes have been shaped by ice and glaciers? Any ideas?


IN PRACTICE: This case study helps students associate glaciers with landscapes and connects them to some places they may not have thought were associated with ice. It allows the process of learning to ease and may be more interesting then learning about an area they may never of heard of.
 
References:

Information and images taken from Iain Stewart's BBC "Earth: The Power of the Planet"

The Iceman

Aim: To be able to understand who the iceman was and to associate him to shrinking glaciers.


Shrinking Glaciers? Lets Ask The Ice Man!


The ice has lots of stories to tell and this is just one of them!

 Figure 1: Image of the ice man once discovered (Reference: Ice Man)

• The body of Otzi was discovered by explorers in September 1991 in an Austrian snow field
• Covered by ice for 5000 years and uncovered by the melting ice it was discovered that he died a violent death
• Found with him was a copper bladed axe - a rare and expensive tool back then.
• Estimated age of 40, which was good in the past - his death suggests a political homicide due to his age and the axe wasn't stolen.

This is just one example of discoveries found due to the shrinking ice - can you find any more?



IN PRACTICE: This story provides some interesting facts for students to remember and gives a break from learning definitions and processes to defer from boredom. Could set a homework task of finding more information about the Ice Man or any other discoveries. 

Glaciers? Why Bother?

AIM: To be able to understand the importance of glaciers and their place in education.

SETTING THE SCENE

Based in the UK the nearest we can get to a glacier, without actually travelling anywhere, is through a photograph or on a map (See distribution map in Figure 1). Begging the question as to why it is important that we study them if we are miles away from the nearest one? The answer being because glaciers hold so much power that they have; shaped our modern world, carved out our landscape and driven our planets climate. Oh, and just the small matter of them affecting the path of human evolution.

Figure 1: Map showing the distribution of glaciers around the globe, which emphasises the lack of proximity the UK holds to one. 96% Antarctica and Greenland. Taken from Prof. Fiona Tweed’s Glacier Lecture and http://nsidc.org/glims/

 

THE PAST- HOW GLACIERS HAVE AFFECTED US:

• LANDSCAPE: Glacial landscapes and valleys can be seen worldwide, from the Scottish Highlands to New York City they have helped to provide the foundations for some of our famous scenes.

• HUMAN EVOLUTION: Fossils found in South Africa illustrate that 3 million years ago there was two great evolutionary leaps forward. These rapid changes tie in with the two advances of the ice sheet. The two leaps include the first being man with a 60% larger brain than before and the second were capable of making stone tools that survived the destabilised climate.

ICE ADVANCE = MORE ICE COVER = MORE SUN REFLECTED = EXTREME CHAOTIC CLIMATE

GLACIAL SHRINKING: THE FACTS:

• 10% of land is covered by glaciers, with a further 10% permanently frozen 
• 75% of the worlds fresh water is stored in glaciers
• A rise of 4°C would cause all ice to melt
• If all ice melted, sea level would rise by 70m
• Mountain glaciers worldwide have a net loss of over 4000 cubic km since 1960s

SO WHY DOES THIS AFFECT THE WORLD?

• FRESH WATER: More than half of humanity relies on the already limited resource freshwater, that accumulates in Mountains

• AGRICULTURE: Glaciers provide water irrigation for a host of communities within their environments, aiding a food supply to many

• DRINKING WATER RESOURCE: Very often is provides the only source of water for humans and biodiversity during dry seasons and the melting of glaciers would lead to water shortages for 500 million people

• HAZARDS: Continuing widespread melting of glaciers will lead to floods and avalanches

• SEA LEVEL RISE: Sea-level rise will affect coastal regions throughout the world, causing flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion into aquifers and freshwater habitat.

• CLIMATE CHANGE: Less ice cover = less heat reflected = hotter climates

SO WHY DOES THIS AFFECT US?

So we may not live next to a Glacier but we are still affected by them !

• The world is interconnected and we currently rely on trade imports from around the globe. If Glaciers continue to melt and rise sea levels it causes flooding and mass migration. These in turn can devestate producing regions and the products we import. Can you imagine a life without McDonalds, the latest nike trainers or Ipods - Interested now huh?
• Like going on holiday? Well places like Venice that are low lying and also built on unstable subsiding marshland and suffering from floods annually may become a thing of the past. The city has already lost 23cm to the sea since 1900 and attracts 7 million visitors each year. Everyone to Skeggy then!
• You may get a 'Climate Change Refugee' as a neighbour! These are the people who are forced to emigrate from their home countries as they become unihabitable (Estimated 200 million people to be rehoused).
  

IN PRACTICE: This information could be used as part of an introductory lesson on Glaciers. The importance of glaciers and why there is a need to learn about them needs to be expressed so even though students may not be in close proximity to a glacier, they know why they are being taught about them so they are less resilient to co operate in lessons.

Video Clip: Shrinking Glaciers

Taken from Dr. Iain Stewart's Earth: The Power of The Planet, the above clip provides a visual aid into the melting of glaciers.

REFERENCES:

Combs, S. Prentice, M. Hansen, L & Rosentrater, L. (2005) “Going, Going, Gone! Climate Change & Global Glacier Decline” WWF International, Germany.

Hoffman, D (2009) “Himalayan Glaciers not melting” The Resilient Earth. Available at www.theresilientearth.com [Accessed Online 01/07/2011]

Knight, P (1999) Glaciers. Stanley Thornes Publishers Ltd, Cheltenham.

NSIDC “GLIMS at NSIDC- Glacial Distribution Map” Available at http://nsidc.org/glims/, [Accessed Online 01/07/2011]

QWICKSTEP (2010) “Map of Himalayan Region” Available at www.qwickstep.eu [Accessed Online 01/07/2011]

Stewart, I (2007) Video clip “Shrinking Glaciers” from Episode “Ice” from Series “Earth: The Power of the Planet” Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gbg92 [Accessed Online 01/07/2011]

WWF Nepal Programme (2005) “An Overview of Glaciers, Glacier Retreat, and Subsequent Impacts in Nepal, India and China” WWF International, Germany.

Key Terms Glossary

AIM: To be able to understand some key terms relating to Glacial Environments.

Before we begin delving into the subject of Glaciers, I thought it appropriate to sift through all the physical geography jargon and provide a simplistic glacier related glossary of the key terms, which I can refer back to in order to make the learning process that much simpler. 

CRYOSPHERE: The portion of the Earth’s Surface where water takes a solid form, as snow or ice. 

FLUVIOGLACIAL: Processes and landforms associated with the action of glacial meltwater.

GLACIAL: Describes a landscape occupied by glaciers and the associated processes and landforms.

GLACIER:  A mass of snow and ice which, if it accumulates to sufficient thickness, deforms under its own weight and flows moving slowly down a valley.

PERIGLACIAL: Process and landforms associated with the fringe of, or the area near to, an ice sheet or glacier.

Other terms relating to the processes and landforms of glacial environments will be defined as this blog goes along with the end result being a final glossary of all the terms used that can be produced on paper and used within future lessons.

IN PRACTICE: This glossary could be filled in throughout a module to keep students engaged with the topic and keep referring back to it to avoid it being forgotten. It could possibly be completed as regular key terms quiz’s and ‘match the term with the description’ as starter exercises.

Video Clip: The Current Ice Age 

Taken from Dr. Iain Stewart's Earth: The Power of The Planet, the above clip provides a visual introduction into ice and glaciers.