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Glacial Systems and Landscapes

The Glacial Mass Budget and Ice Movement

  • 4 things to know
  • Component 1

Overview

Recall questions on the glacial mass budget, accumulation and ablation zones, the equilibrium line, positive, negative and balanced budgets, past ice advance and retreat, basal sliding and internal deformation, extending, compressing and rotational flow, and warm- and cold-based glaciers.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What is the glacial (mass) budget?

Key term

Where are the accumulation zone and the ablation zone found on a glacier?

Key term

When is a glacier's budget negative, and what happens to the snout?

Process

Define accumulation, ablation and the equilibrium line.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is the glacial (mass) budget?

    Model answer

    The balance over a year between the mass a glacier gains through accumulation and the mass it loses through ablation.

  2. 2

    Define accumulation.

    Model answer

    The input of snow and ice to a glacier, mainly from snowfall, avalanches and wind-blown snow, which compacts into ice.

  3. 3

    Define ablation.

    Model answer

    The loss of ice and snow from a glacier through melting, sublimation, evaporation and calving.

  4. 4

    Where are the accumulation zone and the ablation zone found on a glacier?

    Model answer

    The accumulation zone is the upper part where inputs exceed losses; the ablation zone is the lower part where losses exceed inputs.

  5. 5

    What is the equilibrium line?

    Model answer

    The line on a glacier where annual accumulation exactly equals annual ablation, so the net balance there is zero.

  6. 6

    When is a glacier's budget positive, and what happens to the snout?

    Model answer

    When accumulation exceeds ablation, typically in colder years; the glacier gains mass and its snout advances.

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