Made with ice

Landforms by Ice

2-16-24

Learning Objective –

Investigate how ice
changes land through
weathering, erosion, and
deposition and identify the
landforms that are created
by ice changing land.

What do you remember about
slow Earth changes by wind
from yesterday?

What are some landforms
formed by ice?

Examples of landforms created by ice are U-

shaped valleys,glaciers, and moraines.

Movie anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnlPrdMoQ1Y

Huge sheets of ice are called
glaciers. Glaciers are found in
very cold places. Because
glaciers are made of solid ice,
you may think they do not move.
But gravity pulls glaciers
downhill. The ice flows like a
very slow river. Glaciers can
weather, erode, and deposit
rocks. A glacier can pick up
rocks as big as school buses!

Glaciers

Ice can also
cause erosion.

+Glaciers are sometimes called

rivers of ice because they are
huge slabs of ice and snow
that move very slowly across
the landscape.

+As glaciers move, they break

off and scrape away pieces of
rock and stone.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.

Multiple Choice

The photograph shows a valley. Which agent of erosion most likely produced this valley's shape?

• blowing wind

• ocean waves

• moving ice

• running water

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is NOT needed to form a delta?

• Water

• Sediments

• Ocean

• Ice

Multiple Choice

Where are deltas located?

• At the mouth of a river

• At the start of a river

• On a beach

• At the top of a mountain

BRRR! This was the glacier I went inside of in

Iceland!

The glacier is called
Langokull Glacier
and is the second
largest glacier in
Iceland!

It is 1,902 feet
thick!

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-ND.

More pics!

As a glacier moves forward, it
pushes boulders against the
ground beneath it, scraping and
scratching rock. This can slowly
change the rock by carving deep
glacial grooves into it. The
grooves can be seen when the
glacier melts. As a glacier begins
to melt, the rocks and sediment it
carried downhill drop out. The
deposited sediment forms
different land features, including
hills called moraines.

Moraines

Moraine- a pile of earth and stones
carried and deposited by a glacier.

U-Shaped Valley

• U-shaped valleys are the result of glaciers
moving downhill and ‘scouring’ the earth
with friction as gravity pulls the glacier from
the top of an elevated area to the bottom.

• The huge size and heavy weight of the
glacier creates a thick, slush-like layer of ice
and water beneath the ice mass. Gravity
means that the glacier is moved downhill,
sliding on this slush layer. The ice can’t be
compressed, so the glacier ends up carving
into the ground underneath it.

• While the glacier is moving, stones and
rocks are picked up and carried along with
the glacier to form eskers. This is called
'plucking'. These rocks can end up stuck to
the bottom of the glacier. They then end up
contributing to the erosion of the surface
that the glacier is moving along.

Over time, erosion from ice by glaciers formed the Great Lakes in North America

Multiple Choice

Created by a glacier through weathering, erosion, and deposition.

• V-shaped valley

• river delta

• canyon

• U-shaped valley

Multiple Choice

This landform is created and changed by wind eroding and depositing fine particles of sediment.

• canyons

• river deltas

• sand dunes

• V-shaped valleys

Multiple Choice

A placed where rivers deposit huge volumes of sediment in either an ocean or a lake, creating new land.

• U-shaped valley

• delta

• canyon

• V-shaped valley

Multiple Choice

Which does NOT describe what glaciers to do rocks?

• carve

• grind

• melt

• scrape

Multiple Choice

Which is the MOST responsible for creating canyons?

• ice

• wind

• water

• glaciers

Multiple Choice

How do glaciers erode land?

• By picking up soil and rocks and depositing them in new location
• By picking up water from lakes and streams and carrying it to the ocean
• By causing rain and snow in an area
• By lowering the atmospheric pressure, causing intense windstorms

Multiple Choice

Which of the following terms describes how glaciers move?

• Quickly
• Gradually
• Aggressively
• Rapidly

When a river deposits the sediments that have been flowing in it at the mouth of a river, a delta forms. Deltas are shaped like a triangle with sediments gathered at the end of a river. Deltas get many of the sediments from weathered rocks along a river.

Deltas are also made by water erosion.

What's Next:

Complete your science quiz.