Ice Ages

The common term for the periods

when there were major cold phases
known as glacials,
glacials and ice sheets
covered large areas of the world.
The last ice age lasted from about 2
million years ago to about 10,000 BP
(Before Present). It was also known
as the Quaternary glaciation
 A chronology of ice ages [in bold]

Glaciation
timeline
showing the
glacials and
interglacial
episodes
interglacials

glaciations
Ice Age Environments 18,000 years
ago
How much of the British Isles was covered in ice?

The Ice Age in Britain

began about
1,000,000 years ago
and lasted until about
20,000 years ago. During this time
temperatures
fluctuated and ice
advanced and
retreated four times.
The northern and
eastern parts of the
British Isles were
covered in ice.
Use an atlas to help you name the source regions of
the valley glaciers.
 Cold
Environments
today
 Glacial environments – areas
covered by ice sheets and glaciers
 Periglacial (& tundra) regions –
exist in dry high-latitude areas not
permanently covered by snow and ice
 Alpine Regions – such areas may
contain small ice caps, mountain
glaciers and tundra environments
Ice formation & movement
For glaciers to form, there must be a year-round
thick mass of snow which becomes compacted to
form ice. Abundant snowfall and cool summers help
this process.
From snow to
glacier ice

SNOW
FIRN
ICE
 The snow that eventually
makes up ice-sheets and
glaciers undergoes a sequence
of conversion stages:
 Settling of snow – loose
granular consistency

 Nivation – annual and

diurnal temperature
changes lead to thaw-
freeze alternation, and the
conversion of snow to ice
crystals
 Firn or neve – increased
pressure between  Sintering –
individual grains causes
continued fusion
pressure melting to
eventually change the and squeezing out
loose snow into a dull, of air as a result of
white, structureless mass,
with far less pore space further
which is therefore more compression by the
impermeable. continuing
accumulation of
snow and ice.
Prominent layering in the firn is visible in the wall of a
large crevasse on Weissmiesgletscher, Switzerland.
 Glacier ice – bluish
in colour and
containing little air
Once formed ice moves in 5 basic
ways
 Internal deformation
 Rotational
 Compressional
 Extensional
 Basal sliding
Internal deformation
occurs
• under pressure – individual
particles of ice melt around
their edges allowing air to
escape; one by one the
particles slip forward on the
thin film of water and
immediately refreeze, and

• the influence of gravity -

layers of granules in the ice
slide across each other.
Layered
structures and
folding resulting
from internal
deformation Axel
Heiberg Island,
Canadian Arctic
Here's a graphic showing rotational flow of ice
through a mountain glacier.

This is a downhill flow of ice which, like a

landslide, pivots around a point producing a
rotational movement.
 Basal sliding
The sliding of a glacier over bedrock, a process usually facilitated
by the lubricating effect of meltwater

Basal sliding of a small mountain glacier in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, has
deformed icicles, which originally grew downwards vertically.
Can you account for
a. the location of the areas of extending and
compressing flow;
b. the formation of crevasses and seracs?
 Crevasses in Glaciers

Crevasses in a continental glacier near the

Ross Sea.
Crevasses are common in the upper parts of glaciers when the ice is subjected to tension.
Crevasse
A deep V-shaped cleft formed in the upper brittle part of a
glacier as a result of the fracture of ice undergoing extension

Aerial view of crevasses in the accumulation area of Fox Glacier,

South Island, New Zealand.
Longitudinal crevasse
A crevasse oriented more or less parallel to the long axis of a glacier.
Longitudinal crevasses typically open when the glacier becomes wider.

Longitudinal crevasses on Persgletscher, Grisons, Switzerland

 Icefall A steep, heavily crevassed, section of a glacier
where it flows over a step in the bedrock.

Icefall below Ewigschneefeld, part of Grosser Aletschgletscher, Bernese Alps

Switzerland.
Sérac
(from the French) A tower of unstable ice that forms between crevasses,
commonly in icefalls or other regions of accelerated glacier flow.

Séracs in an icefall on Oberer Grindelwaldgletscher, Bernese Alps, Switzerland

 Surge A short-lived phase of accelerated flow during which the
glacier surface becomes broken up into a maze of crevasses.

Variegated Glacier, southern Alaska, during a surge.

Surge front The zone of intense compression between surging ice and non-surging ice.
This is commonly marked by a bulge and a transition from heavily crevassed to
crevasse-free ice. The surge front rapidly moves through the glacier, and if it reaches the
snout, the glacier advances.

Heavily fractured surge front of the glacier Fridtjofbreen, Bellsund, Spitsbergen,

Svalbard. The glacier advanced approximately a kilometre during the surge, overriding
a marine embayment and the adjacent land area.