Unit 4: Earth’s surface processes

Landforms in glaciated regions, deserts and river valleys.

Morteratsch Glacier, Switzerland. Pixabay.com

Glacier: thick ice mass

that forms over 100 or
1000’s of years.
• Form by
accumulation,
compaction and
recrystallization of
snow.
• They move very
slowly (a few cm/yr)
• Part of water as well
as rock cycle
 Types of glaciers:
20,000 years ago
• Ice Sheets are large, Larger
1.7
continental-scale (>50,000 sq. km) Ice million
ice masses. Sheets sq.km
1.5 km
• They are drained by smaller outlet thick
glaciers or ice streams that flow out
from themArctic ocean ordirections.
in different glacier https://climate.nasa.gov
/
• Greenland, Antarctica
• Valley (Alpine) glaciers are
relatively small, occur high
in the mountains in large
numbers.
• They flow into valleys
• They are called "cirque
glaciers" if they originate in
small bowls with steep
headwalls (cirques).
https://sealevel.nasa.gov
 Saunders Island, Greenland. NASA/Michael Studinger
• Ice shelves: Floating ice on water
but remain attached to land

• Ice caps: Smaller than ice

sheets (<50,000 sq. km).
Bodies of ice that collect in high
elevation catchment areas and Malaspina Glacier, Alaska
are drained by smaller outlet
glaciers.

• Piedmont glacier: If a
valley glacier spills out of
the mountains, onto the
flat foreland, the ice often
spreads to form a lobe. Mars north pole ice cap

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/glaciers/types-of-glaciers.htm
 Glacial retreat
Isua Greenstone Belt is an
Refers greenstone
Archean to the belt (3.7 and
process
3.8 billion of a is the largest
years)
glacier of Eoarchaean
exposure
shrinking rocks
supracrustal or on Earth.
receding in
sizetoover
Due time
its age and low metamorphic
due to
grade, itsahas become a focus for
decrease in on
investigations icethe emergence
accumulation
of life and the style of tectonics
or an
that increase
operated on the early
in ice melt
Earth.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/ladakh-glacier-retreat-due-to-warming-low-winter-precipitation-finds-study/article35788810.ece
 Glacial erosion:
• Glaciers are capable of
extensive erosion as they apply
tremendous amount of force
on floor & walls of the valley.

• U-shaped valley: V-shaped valley

widen by glacier
• Truncated spur: Triangular
shaped cliffs
• Hanging valley: Tributary glacial
valley left standing above the
main valley
• Cirques: Head of the glacial valley
• Tarn: Lake in cirque basin
• Arête: Sinuous, sharp ridges
 Evidence of ancient glaciation:
Mount Rainier National Park
• Glacial striations:
• Diamictite: poorly sorted or non-sorted scratches or gouges
terrigenous (land-derived) non-calcareous cut into bedrock by
sedimentary rock that contains variously sized glacial abrasion
clasts from clay to boulders in a muddy matrix
• Tillite: Diamictite formed from
glacier-derived sediments (till)
• Dropstone: Isolated
fragments of rock found Tillite
Diamictite
within finer-grained Glacial striation Dropstone
water-deposited
sedimentary rocks
• Vertically drop, not
transported by currents

https://geo.libretexts.org/ & wikipedia

 Snowball Earth Hypothesis:
• Earth's surface became entirely or nearly entirely frozen with no liquid
Recent Glaciations
oceanic water exposed to the atmosphere.
• Glaciation is believed to have occurred sometime before 650 mya during
the Cryogenian period.

Wisconsin
Indian plate during glaciation
late carboniferous
What caused Snowball Earth?

Normal Proterozoic carbon cycle

C. Bentley
 What caused Snowball Earth?

Pre-Snowball Proterozoic carbon “cycle”

C. Bentley
What caused the melting?

Snowball Proterozoic carbon “cycle”

C. Bentley
 • During the Snowball Earth, volcanoes continued
to erupt, producing lava, ash & gases, including
water vapor & CO2.

• With volcano eruption, CO2 levels increased.

Snowball Earth

• No weathering to extract the CO2 from the air Hot

increased it further. Increased greenhouse effect. Aftermath

• Eventually, after about 5 million years or so,

greenhouse heat retention would have overcome Snowball
the albedo’s cooling effects. Earth
Period
• A few patches of sea ice would have melted
–probably at the equator — and the exposed
ocean water would have efficiently absorbed
incoming solar energy. This melted more ice.

• When Snowball Earth was over, the atmosphere

chock full of CO2 and a low albedo allowing
maximum absorption of incoming solar
radiation, the average global temperature at this
time is estimated to have been +50° C.
 Landforms: Moraines
• Accumulation of rock debris (till)
carried or deposited by a glacier
• Debris ranges in size from blocks or
boulders (usually faceted or striated) to
sand and clay
• Unstratified when dropped by the
glacier and shows no sorting or bedding
• Ground moraine consists of an
irregular blanket of till deposited under
a glacier.
• Lateral moraines are parallel ridges of
debris deposited along the sides of a
glacier.
• End or terminal moraines are ridges of
unconsolidated debris deposited at the
snout or end of the glacier.
Crustal subsidence and rebound (post-glacial rebound):
• The rise of land masses after the Devon Island, Canada
removal of the huge weight of ice
sheets during the last glacial
period, which had caused isostatic
depression.

• Crustal rebound produces

effects on
• vertical crustal motion
• global sea levels
• horizontal crustal motion
• gravity field
• Earth's rotation
• crustal stress
• earthquakes
 Landforms in desert: Aeolian Landforms
• The location of most deserts
is related to descending air -
the equator receives the
sun’s heat more directly than
the rest of the earth, the air
warms and rises then moves
both northward and
southward to sink near 30oN
and 30oS

World distribution of nonpolar deserts. Most deserts lie

in two bands near 30o N and 30oS.
 About desert:
• Rain shadow: deserts resulting from mountain ranges - moist air is forced up
to pass over a mountain range, it expands and cools, losing moisture as it
rises, dry air coming down on the other side of the mountain compresses and
warms, bringing high evaporation with little or no rainfall to the downwind
side of the range
• Great distance from the ocean: since most rainfall comes from water
evaporated from the sea, a great distance from the ocean is another factor
that can create deserts
• Lack through-flowing streams
• Internal drainage - the streams drain toward landlocked basins instead of
toward the sea
• Flash floods - because of the lack of vegetation, heavy rainfall runs rapidly over
the surface and can create sudden local floods of high discharge
 Wind: main agent of erosion in desert
• Wind differs from running water in two ways:
• because air is less dense than water, wind can erode only fine
sediment - sand, silt and clay
• wind is not confined to channels as running water is, so water can
have a widespread effect over vast areas
Ventifacts: rocks with flat, Mushroom rock: Yardang: The rock is eroded into
wind-abraded surfaces pedestal rock
Yardangs
alternating ridges and furrows essentially
on Mars
parallel to the dominant wind direction.
• Loess: a deposit of wind-blown
or glacial-derived silt and clay
(20-50 μm)
• composed of unweathered,
angular grains of quartz,
feldspar, and other minerals
weakly cemented by calcite
• have a high porosity, typically
near 60%
• Ten percent of Earth's land
area is covered by loesses or
similar deposits
• Plateaus: a broad, flat-topped area elevated above the surrounding land and
bounded, at least in part, by cliffs
• Mesa: a broad, flat-topped hill bounded by cliffs and capped with a resistant
rock layer
• Butte: a narrow hill of resistant rock with a flat top and very steep sides

• Playa lake: a shallow

temporary lake on a
flat valley floor (playa)
in a dry region
• Bajada: a broad
gently-sloping
depositional surface
formed by the
coalescing of
individual alluvial fans

• Pediment: a gently sloping surface, commonly covered with a

veneer of gravel, cut into the solid rock of the mountain
• Sand dunes: mounds of loose sand
grains heaped up by the wind, most
likely to develop in areas with
strong winds that generally blow in
the same direction
• sand grains found in dunes are
commonly well-sorted and
well-rounded because wind is very
selective as it moves sediment

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/aeolian-landforms.ht
• Assignment 2:
• Discuss the Snowball Earth
• Write a note on evidences of ancient glaciation
• Write a short note on and draw the figures for
1. Eskers
2. Inselberg
3. Moraines
4. Mesa & butte
5. Bajada
6. Pediment
7. Playa lake
8. Types of sand dunes
9. Loess
10. Yardang