Tuesday, November 11, 2008

How Ice Erodes.


As ice moves, it shapes the landscape by erosion.It does this by Plucking and Abrasion.

Plucking- As the ice moves, there is some melting at the base of the glacier. If the ice stops, this meltwater freezes and sticks on to the rock. As the glacier moves forward again, it pulls or plucks chunks of rocks from it.

Abrasion- As the plucked rocks are carried away by the ice, they scrape or scratch the surface over which the glacier passes, like a giant sheet of sandpaper. These scratches are called striae.


I got this information from a book called New Geo by Liam Ashe and Kieran McCarthy and this image from Wikimedia.

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