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NATS 1003
Syllabus
Topic Outlines

Topic 12   Glaciers

Primary goals

• Understand how glaciers create landforms
• Understand how glaciers formed the landscape of Minnesota 

Topics

12.1 Characteristics of continental glaciers  

• Terms: continental glaciers; ice sheets

• Description: Describe the size of continental glaciers

• Description: Describe the composition of continental glaciers

• Description: Describe how glaciers move

• Description: Describe the relative amounts of ice leaving and being added to the glacier at different locations, including the center and the edges

• Terms: glacier retreat; glacier advance

• Explanation: What causes a glacier to advance or retreat (in terms of ice leaving and being added to the glacier)?

• Process: How does the ice in a glacier move when the glacier advances, and when it retreats?

• Description: How are conditions at the edge of the glaciers different from conditions near the center?

• Question: How fast do glaciers move?

12.2  Glacial erosion  

• Process: How can a glacier cause abrasion?

• Process: How can a glacier cause bulldozing/quarrying?

• Process: How can a glacier cause plucking?

• Landform: How does a roches moutonees form?

• Description: How does glacial meltwater cause erosion?

12.3  Glacial deposits  

• Explanation: How, when, and where do glaciers deposit materials?

• Explanation: Do we see glacial deposits when the glacier advances or retreats or both?

• Terms: glacial drift; till; outwash

12.4  Landforms made of till  

• For each landform, be able to identify it, describe how it looks, and how it forms
  --Landforms: moraine; ground moraine; end moraine; erratic; drumlin

12.5  Landforms made of outwash  

• For each landform, be able to identify it, describe how it looks, and how it forms
  --Landforms: outwash plain; kettle; kettle lake; kame; esker; proglacial lake

• Description: What is loess and how does it form? 

12.6  Minnesota glacial features

• Be able to explain how each of these formed:
  Anoka sand plain; Red River valley; Mille Lacs lake; Minnesota River valley; most lakes in the Twin Cities

Resources for students

Entire course

• Course notes from Prof. Nelson
• Course notes from Illinois
• Course notes from Hofstra
• Common questions and myths about glaciers from USGS

Links for further interest

Entire course

• Glacial parks
  --Glacier National Park
  --Glacier Bay National Park and Reserve in Alaska
• Glacier studies USGS

12.1 Characteristics of continental glaciers

• short video of water running under glacier and glacier movement   1 min
• Time lapse of glacier movement (start at 2:00 minutes)
• Common questions and myths about glaciers from USGS
• Greenland ice layers   3 min
• too close to calving ice    3 min
• Thinning ice sheets   2 min
• Antarctica ice sheet survey 4 min     prep  3 min

12.2  Glacial erosion

12.3  Glacial deposits

• Edge of a glacier video   2 min
• Glacial features in Nova Scotia
• Glacial deposits in Upper Michigan

12.4  Landforms made of till

• End moraines
     --NDSU photo
      --Detailed look at the depth of Lake Michigan (discusses an end moraine that stretches across the lake bottom)
• Erratics
     --Erratics video  2 min
     --Lassen Volcanic Park
     --North Dakota
• Drumlins by Green Bay

12.5  Landforms made of outwash

• Kame and esker video   1 min
• Outwash in Greenland
• Esker in North Dakota
• Proglacial lakes
     --glacial Lake Hitchcock in New England
     --description in New York
• Loess
     --Loess video   3 min
     --Loess exposure of southern Illinois
     --The loess hills of the lower Mississippi valley
• Lakes on the Greenland ice sheet video   2 min
• Minnesota surface geology site
• Anoka county maps