Glacial Geology is that branch of geology (study of the earth) which deals with erosion and deposition by glaciers. Inasmuch as glaciers are very slowly creeping streams of massive ice (see Glaciology, pr Vol. VI) these records are all made at the earth's surface. Most of the effects change the landscape: (1) by the sandpapering ( abrasion , q.v.) and plucking action of the moving ice which reshapes the land (rock and soil) over which it passes and (2) by the transportation and deposition of the eroded materials which tend to fill old valleys, or coat hills and plains, or are dumped as hummocks and ridges. Much of the deposition is from the moving ice itself, further quantities by meltwater, and some of it is carried by wind systems associated with the presence of the ice.
Most of the principles of glacial geology have been worked out from studies of the earth's surface records of the last “ice age,” which is called the Pleistocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period. Four times and more...
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Cross-references
Abrasion; Bergschrund; Braided Streams; Chatter Marks; Cirque; Cirque Glacier; Col; Crag and Tail; Crevasse; Deltaic Evolution; Drift, Glacial; Drumlin; Dynamic Geomorphology; Erratic Block; Esker; Finger Lakes; Fjord, Fiord; Frost Action; Glacial Deposits; Glacial Lakes; Glacial Plucking; Glacial Scour; Glacial Stairway; Glacial Valley; Glaciation, Glacierization; Great Lakes—North America; Hanging Valley; Horn, Matterhorn; Kame; Kettle; Lobes, Lobation; Loess; Moraine; Outwash Plain, Fan, Terrace, Sandur; Perched Block, Boulder; Periglacial Eolian Effects; Permafrost; Proglacial Deposits; Quaternary Period; Roche Moutonéee; Sediment Transport; Snow Avalanche; Stagnant Ice Melting; Strandline; Striae, Striated Pavement; Talus, Scree, Cliff Debris; Tarn; Valley (Mountain) Glacier; Waterfalls.
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Goldthwait, R.P., Smith, G.W. (1968). Glacial geology: Introduction . In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_150
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