Glaciers

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Oct 30, 2023

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Ashley Shaw Dr. Riese October 7, 2023 Principles of Geology Glaciers Glaciers covered most of the Earth in the last ice age called the Pleistocene epoch, beginning about 2.6 million years ago and ended only 11,700 years ago (Zimmermann, 2017). Glaciers are massive packs of ice that have formed by countless snow falls and ice being compressed and packed into a large pack of slow-moving ice. Today the only glaciers you’ll see are near the polar ends of the Earth, the North Pole, Canada, Greenland, Antartica and the in the high mountains such as the Andes in South America. Glaciers have periods of colder periods where they grow and warmer periods where they melt, the freezing and thawing of glaciers is one way in which they move. Glaciers slide over the underlying rocks and terrain on a thin layer of melt water between the glacier and the rock in a process known as creep (Science of Glaciers, n.d.). The Glacial ice is softer than the rock it is moving over, this causes the ice to be deformed, the top of the glacier will move faster than the bottom moving over the surface, the surface provides friction and is where debris is picked up and carried, the pressure from the above ice can force the ice at the bottom to melt (Science of Glaciers, n.d.). The process of receding and advancing is not the movement of the glacier. A receding glacier is when melt is faster than flow, likewise an advancing glacier is flowing faster than its melting. Advancement and receding refer to the position of the end of the glacier (Science of Glaciers, n.d.). Of all the water on this planet only about two percent is frozen in glaciers (National Geographic Society, 2022), but the impact that these ice sheets have on the carbon cycle could be devastating. Studies have shown that ice sheets attract carbon-containing aerosols from human or

natural sources, these carbons are stored in the ice in organic matter that when released can travel through nutrient-rich melt water to fertilize ecosystems or marine systems. Marine feralization can create issues with bio blooms from phytoplankton converting CO 2 through photosynthesis (Wadham et al., 2019). While too much fertilization can come from ice sheets meltwater, a lot of ecosystems and animals rely on it. The nutrients supplied by these ice sheets make their way into the food chain via vegetation that is consumed by animals like the musk ox, caribou, and other land-dwelling herbivories. In the ocean, phytoplankton are the base of the marine food chain and are consumed by zooplankton, small fish, and whales (What Are Phytoplankton, 2010). Carnivores then feed on herbivories and receive the energy and nutrients that started out in the melt from ice sheets. The transfer of nutrients in these regions all start with nutrients stored in ice sheets and support the food chain. An ice age is not some frozen tundra that takes over the planet, instead it is a period where average temperatures are colder, and the ice sheets are bigger. Warm periods will still occur, and the advancement and retreat of the glaciers will still happen (Scott, 2021). In this case I wouldn’t have a specific place in mind to live but I would want to live somewhere down stream of a glacier where the nutrients would wash down and create fertile soil for agriculture. The southern region of North America would be the ideal place if ice sheets were to advance down the majority of North America. The warmer climate would be ideal for growing crops and the would have less of a chance of advancement in to the region. References National Geographic Society. (2022, May 20). Glacier . Education.nationalgeographic.org. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/glacier/

Science of Glaciers . (n.d.). National Snow and Ice Data Center. Retrieved October 7, 2023, from https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/glaciers/science-glaciers#:~:text=Glaciers %20move%20by%20internal%20deformation Scott, M. (2021, February 18). What’s the coldest the Earth’s ever been? Www.climate.gov. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-coldest-earths-ever- been#:~:text=An%20ice%20age%20is%20a Wadham, J. L., Hawkings, J. R., Tarasov, L., Gregoire, L. J., Spencer, R. G. M., Gutjahr, M., Ridgwell, A., & Kohfeld, K. E. (2019). Ice sheets matter for the global carbon cycle. Nature Communications , 10 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11394-4 What are Phytoplankton? (2010, July 16). Nasa.gov; NASA Earth Observatory. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Phytoplankton/page2.php Zimmermann, K. A. (2017, August 29). Pleistocene Epoch: Facts About the Last Ice Age . Live Science; Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/40311-pleistocene-epoch.html

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