Problem 2
Studies have shown that during the Ice Age, the margins of some ice sheets advanced southward from the Hudson Bay region at rates ranging from about 50 to 320 meters per year. a. Determine the maximum amount of time required for an ice sheet to move from the southern end of Hudson Bay to the south shore of present day Lake Erie, a distance of 1600 kilometers. b. Calculate the minimum number of years required for an ice sheet to move this distance.
Problem 3
The photo on the next page shows an iceberg floating in the ocean near the coast of Greenland. a. How do icebergs form? What term applies to this process? b. Using the knowledge you have gained about these features, explain the common phrase "It's only the tip of the iceberg." c. Is an iceberg the same as sea ice? Explain. d. If this iceberg were to melt, how would sea level be affected?
Problem 4
If Earth were to experience another Ice Age, one hemisphere would have substantially more expansive ice sheets than the other. Would it be the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere? What is the reason for the large disparity?
Problem 6
While taking a break from a hike in the Northern Rockies with a fellow geology enthusiast, you notice that the boulder you are sitting on is part of a deposit that consists of a jumbled mixture of many different sediment sizes. Since you are in an area that once had extensive valley glaciers, your colleague suggests that the deposit must be glacial till. Although you know this is certainly a good possibility, you remind your companion that other processes in mountain areas also produce unsorted deposits. What might such a process be? How might you and your friend determine whether this deposit is actually glacial till?
Problem 8
If the budget of a valley glacier were balanced for an extended time span, what feature would you expect to find at the terminus of the glacier? Is it composed of till or stratified drift? Now assume that the glacier's budget changes so that ablation exceeds accumulation. How would the terminus of the glacier change? Describe the deposit you would expect to form under these conditions.
