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A meltwater channel (or sometimes a glacial meltwater channel) is a channel cut into ice, bedrock or unconsolidated deposits by the flow of water derived from the melting of a glacier or ice-sheet. [1] The channel may form on the surface of, within, beneath, along the margins of or downstream from the ice mass.
The valley wall prevents meltwater streams from flowing outward away from the glacial snout. Instead, glacial meltwater is diverted laterally along the ice margin and deposits sediments between the glacier and valley wall. [25] As the glacier retreats, the process may repeat creating a stepped slope or terrace referred to as a kame terrace.
A glacier stream is a channelized area that is formed by a glacier in which liquid water accumulates and flows. [1] Glacial streams are also commonly referred to as "glacier stream" or/and "glacial meltwater stream". The movement of the water is influenced and directed by gravity and the melting of ice. [1]
Meltwater provides drinking water for a large proportion of the world's population, as well as providing water for irrigation and hydroelectric plants. This meltwater can originate from seasonal snowfall, or from the melting of more permanent glaciers. Climate change threatens the precipitation of snow [1] and the shrinking volume of glaciers. [2]
Subglacial streams are conduits of glacial meltwater that flow at the base of glaciers and ice caps. [1] Meltwater from the glacial surface travels downward throughout the glacier, forming an englacial drainage system consisting of a network of passages that eventually reach the bedrock below, where they form subglacial streams. [1]
Meltwater may flow either above the glacier (supraglacially), below the glacier (subglacially/basally) or as groundwater in an aquifer below the glacier as a result of the hydraulic transmissivity of the subsoil under the glacier. If the rate of production exceeds the rate of loss through the aquifer, then water will collect in surface or ...
The accumulation of till will form a terminal moraine as the glacier retreats. [2] Ablation moraines form when a large piece of ice, containing an accumulation of sediment and debris, breaks from the snout of the glacial. Once it is separated and begins to melt, the debris found throughout this glacial piece is deposited to form a new terminal ...
[1] [3] Examples include glacial moraines, eskers, and kames. Drumlins and ribbed moraines are also landforms left behind by retreating glaciers. Many depositional landforms result from sediment deposited or reshaped by meltwater and are referred to as fluvioglacial landforms. Fluvioglacial deposits differ from glacial till in that they were ...