Announcements

Geology 370: Glacial Geology

May 14, 2007 - Office hours during finals week: Monday 5/14 1:00-2:00; Tuesday 5/15 no set hours but I'll be in my office for most of the day.

May 8, 2007 - Here are some pictures from our field trip.

Stop 1 - Outwash plain; Arnott Moraine

Stop 2 - Niagara Escarpment

Stop 3 - Drumlin

Stop 4 - Drumlin

Stop 5 - Greenbush Kettle 1; Greenbush Kettle 2; Greenbush Kettle 3

Stop 6 - Parnell Tower 1; Parnell Tower 2

Stop 7 - Garrity Hill 1; Garrity Hill 2; Garrity Hill 3; Garrity Hill 4

Stop 8 - Parnell Esker 1; Parnell Esker 2

April 22 - Take a virtual field trip of Glacier National Park.

Please read the background information contained in the introduction. There is material here that should help you answer questions associated with the trip activities.

Go the the supporting materials link to print answer sheets for the activities you need to complete. Please answer questions associated with the following stops and activities. This is due Monday April 30 in class.

Stop 1: Activity 2

Stop 2: Activity 1

Stop 3: Activity 2

Stop 4: Activity 1

April 20 - Here's a link to an article on paleoenvironmental reconstruction using rock/sediment cores from Antarctica, complements of Sarah. If you find any other relevant articles, let me know and I'll link them here.

March 8 - Office hours for Friday, March 9 will be from 9:00-9:45 due to a 10:00 appointment. Sorry for any inconvenience.

February 2 - One of you asked what percent of Iceland is covered by ice. According to Aber (2006) about 10% of Iceland is covered by ice. This image, taken in September 2002, shows Icelands larger icecaps. The largest ice cap (middle right) is Vatnajokull which has an average thickness of 400-500 meters and which sits atop two large volcanic centers and about five other smaller volcanically active spots (Iceland on the Web). Heat from these volcanoes occasionally results in major outburst floods. The middle top ice cap is Hofsjokull, the left-most ice cap is Langjokull, and the one at the bottom of the image is Myrdalsjokull.
Image credit: NASA Visible Earth. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=4701

One of you asked about Antarctic ice stream flow velocities. Here's an image showing flow velocities for the Lambert Glacier in Antarctica, which isn't an ice stream, but the velocities are quite impressive. Yellow represents either stationary ice or exposed land. Data from Ice Streams E and E near the Ross Ice Shelf indicate average flow velocities of 120 m/year on Upper Ice Stream D (Bindschadler et al, 1996), 182 m/year on Lower Ice Stream D (Bindschadler et al, 1996), 219 m/year on Upper Ice Stream E (Bindschadler et al, 1996), and 399 m/year on Lower Ice Stream E (Bindschadler et al, 1996).
Image credit: NASA Visible Earth; Image courtesy Canadian Space Agency/NASA/Ohio State University, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Alaska SAR facility.
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=1618

One of you asked what a hanging glacier is - it's a glacier that ends near or at the end of a cliff. It's where we might find a hanging valley once the glacial ice has melted.

January 22 - The links page is now linked!

January 22 - First day of class! Welcome to Glacial Geology. Here's a great panaroma of the glacial landscape surrounding the Matterhorn, Switzerland. Here's a really awesome image of Mount Everest and the glaciers surrounding it. The Mount Everest image is from the World Atlas of Panoramic Aerial Maps by W. Bowen.

Karen A. Lemke: klemke@uwsp.edu
Last revised April 22, 2007