Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology, 11e (Tarbuck)
Chapter 18 Glaciers and Glaciation
18.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1) What percentage of the Earth is currently covered by glacial ice?
A) 2%
B) 10%
C) 15%
D) 33%
2) Which of the following locations does not currently have glaciers?
A) Norway
B) Antarctica
C) Scotland
D) Ecuador
3) When was the last glacial maximum in North America?
A) 18,000 years ago
B) 10,000 years ago
C) 100,000 years ago
D) 32,000 years ago
4) The Mer de Glace glacier in the French Alps is an example of which kind of glacier?
A) Valley
B) Ice Sheet
C) Piedmont
D) Cirque
5) Which of the following is not an example of alpine glaciation?
A) Valley
B) Ice Sheet
C) Piedmont
D) Cirque
6) What is the major source of moisture needed to generate glaciers?
A) Groundwater
B) Geysers
C) Oceans
D) Streams
7) ________ is an elevation point above which snow remains throughout the year.
A) Firn
B) Snowline
C) Grounding line
D) Surge
8) Which crevasse will form parallel to the terminus as a glacier moves over a change in slope?
A) Bergschrund
B) Longitudinal
C) Transverse
D) Moulin
9) Which crevasse will form perpendicular to the terminus as a glacier stretches to fill a valley?
A) Bergschrund
B) Longitudinal
C) Transverse
D) Moulin
10) ________ is an erosional method where meltwater penetrates fractures in subglacial bedrock
and freezes.
A) Plucking
B) Comminuting
C) Spalling
D) Abrasion
11) What shape will glacial troughs generally display?
A) V
B) W
C) Y
D) U
12) A ________ is a small, circular lake that will occupy a cirque.
A) Paternoster
B) Marsh
C) Tarn
D) Fenster
13) A(n) ________ is a sharp, knife-edged ridge that forms between two valley glaciers.
A) Horn
B) Arête
C) Col
D) Moraine
14) A(n) ________ is a pass in a divide created by headward erosion between two cirque
glaciers.
A) Arête
B) Cirque (basin)
C) Glacial trough
D) Col
15) Which part of a glacier is responsible for abrasion and plucking?
A) Basal sliding zone
B) Glacial interior
C) Terminus
D) Brittle surface zone
16) ________ are stratified sands and gravels carried away from the glacial terminus by
meltwater.
A) Loess
B) Outwash
C) Till
D) Diamicton
17) ________ is fine silt generated by glaciers that can be carried for long distances by the wind.
A) Loess
B) Outwash
C) Till
D) Diamicton
18) ________ is unsorted, unstratified, bimodal sediment directly deposited by the glacial ice.
A) Loess
B) Outwash
C) Till
D) Diamicton
19) Which moraine marks the furthest extent of glacial ice?
A) Laterial moraine
B) Medial moraine
C) Recessional moraine
D) Terminal moraine
20) Which of the following best explains the formation of a medial moraine?
A) A gravel pile that marks periods of glacial readvancement
B) A ridge of till carried down the center of glacial ice
C) Sands and gravels that fill a subglacial stream channel
D) A ridge of till carried along the sides of an advancing glacier
21) Deposits of stratified sands and gravels transported from the glacier by meltwater are called
________ when adjacent to an ice sheet and ________ when adjacent to an alpine glacier.
A) Lateral moraine; kame
B) Drumlin; outwash plain
C) Outwash plain; valley train
D) Terminus; Esker
22) What bodies of water are formed when a stagnant block of glacial ice becomes partly or
completely buried in glacial sediments, eventually melting?
A) Tarns
B) Paternosters
C) Braided streams
D) Kettle lakes
23) Which moraine would be most useful for tracing valuable gold deposits back to their bedrock
source area?
A) Recessional moraine
B) Terminal moraine
C) Lateral moraine
D) End moraine
24) Which of the following descriptions does not specifically to outwash sediments?
A) Deposited in stratified layers
B) Combination of clay-rich materials and several large clasts
C) Often well-sorted
D) Deposited by glacial meltwater
25) Which of the following scenarios can lead to the formation of a kame?
A) Sediment accumulates in a hole in the ice
B) Sediment is carried on top of the glacier
C) Sediment collects in subglacial stream channels
D) Sediment covers a stagnant block of ice
26) Why would businesses find eskers to be economically important?
A) Provide flat areas for transportation routes
B) Provide nutrient-rich farmland
C) Provide easy access to water sources
D) Provide easily accessible sand and gravel deposits
27) ________ form when narrow masses of stratified sediments are deposited between a glacier
and the valley wall.
A) Eskers
B) Kame terraces
C) Lateral moraines
D) Valley train
28) Which state would you not expect to contain drumlins, eskers, and kettle lakes?
A) Minnesota
B) New York
C) Kentucky
D) Michigan
29) How does isostatic rebound affect a glacial landscape?
A) A depressed crust will rise after glacial retreat
B) Advancing glaciers will erode bedrock, which will allow rock to spring up
C) Meltwater streams deposit sediment, severely depressing the landscape
D) Weight of water forces the crust downward
30) What is a pluvial lake?
A) A lake that forms on the margins of glaciers from glacial meltwater
B) A lake that fills due to increased precipitation in a cooler, wetter climate
C) A lake forming from a stagnant piece of melting glacial ice
D) A subterranean lake forming in a sinkhole
31) Which of the following was a pluvial lake?
A) Lake Bonneville
B) Lake Agassiz
C) Lake Michigan
D) Lake of the Woods
32) Which scientist is considered the Father of Glacial Geology?
A) Charles Lyell
B) Charles Darwin
C) Louis Agassiz
D) Anton Milankovitch
33) What was the most recent episode of glaciation in North America?
A) Nebraskan Episode
B) Kansan Episode
C) Illinois Episode
D) Wisconsin Episode
34) Which continent was covered by the most ice at the height of the Ice Age?
A) South America
B) Asia
C) North America
D) Europe
35) Which glacial erosion feature will likely contain a waterfall today?
A) Tarn
B) Hanging valley
C) Esker
D) Horn
36) Which of the following is not part of the Milankovitch Cycle?
A) Precession
B) Obliquity
C) Eccentricity
D) Isostacy
37) ________ is the name for glacial deposits that have been lithified into a sedimentary rock.
A) Tillite
B) Loessite
C) Sandstone
D) Schist
38) Which of the following glacial episodes is colloquially known as “Snowball Earth,” when
almost the entire Earth was covered with ice?
A) 2 billion years ago
B) 600 million years ago
C) 250 million years ago
D) 2 million years ago
39) How would plate tectonics explain the glaciation at the end of the Paleozoic Era, when no
evidence of glacial ice can be found in high latitude areas of North America and Eurasia?
A) The climate was too warm for glacial ice on those continents
B) The glaciation was very small
C) The continents were joined to form Pangaea, which was located around the South Pole
D) There was an increased amount of solar radiation penetrating the atmosphere above those
continents
40) The amount of incoming solar radiation coming in at ________ helps to determine whether
or not a planet will be going into an Ice Age.
A) 10° S
B) 45° N
C) 76° S
D) 65° N
41) The glaciers in ________ began forming 30 million years ago.
A) Antarctica
B) Glacier National Park
C) New Zealand
D) Greenland
42) What as the name of the ice sheet that covered North America west of the Canadian
Rockies?
A) Laurentide Ice Sheet
B) Nisqually Glacier
C) Fennoscandian Ice Sheet
D) Cordilleran Ice Sheet
43) When did the ice-free corridor open in North America, allowing one path for human
migration from Asia?
A) 12,500 years ago
B) 9,000 years ago
C) 100,000 years ago
18.2 True/False Questions
1) Glaciers are a single, solid piece of ice that flows from the Zone of Accumulation to the Zone
of Saturation.
2) The only continental ice sheets left on Earth today are in Greenland and Antarctica.
3) The iceberg that sank the Titanic came from a glacier in Greenland.
4) Valley glaciers are capable of moving independently of the topography.
5) Sea ice is composed of frozen saltwater.
6) A glacier will take hundreds of thousands of years to form, but only a few thousand years to
disappear.
7) Glaciers form in areas where more snow falls in the winter than is lost in the summer.
8) When a glacier is in retreat, the ice can flow from the Zone of Ablation to the Zone of
Accumulation.
9) Glaciers in arctic regions that are frozen to their beds will move via internal deformation.
10) Most glaciers today are in a state of retreat.
11) Because sea level does not act like base level with glaciers, a glacier can erode its bed below
sea level.
12) In order for a bimodal sediment to be called till, it must be directly deposited by glacial ice.
If it is not, it is referred to as a diamicton.
13) Outwash sediments are stratified by wind deposition.
14) A glacier can have only one recessional moraine.
15) Kettle lakes are formed when a large chunk of ice breaks off the ice front, plunges through
the air, and embeds itself into the soft sediment below.
16) A kame terrace is an ice-contact deposit.
17) Sea level will rise during a glaciation because glaciers are pushing down on the crust, which
will deform the ocean basins.
18) Lake Superior is a remnant lake of the former glacial Lake Agassiz.
19) The continental shelf would have been exposed to the atmosphere during glaciations because
sea level would have been dozens of meters lower at that time.
20) The North American continent was covered by more ice than the South American continent
at the height of the Ice Age.
21) The Earth is still in an Ice Age today because there are still glaciers on the planet.
22) When the three parts of the Milankovitch Cycle align, the planet is receiving the most solar
radiation possible.
1) Circle the correct answers: Ice shelves will be grounded in (shallow / deep) water and float
in (shallow / deep) water.
2) How does an ice cap compare to an ice sheet?