Based on:

• Size and shape of glacier
• Characteristics of their environment (topography; confined or unconfined)
• Altitude in relation to areal extent

Classification of Emblem and King (1975)

• Niche, wall-sided or cliff glacier
• Cirque glacier
• Valley glacier--Alpine type
  • Mer de Glace, French Alps (Glaciology at Univ. Wis)
• Valley glacier--Outlet type (feed by an ice sheet or ice cap)
  • Byrd Glacier Antarctica
  • Outlet glaciers from plateau ice cap, Royal Society Fiord, Baffin Island
  • Outlet glacier from Prince of Wales Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island
• Piedmont glacier:
  • Malaspina Glacier, AK(GFS) (EarthObservatory image)
  • Piedmont glacier, west of Lake Hazen, Ellesmere Island
• Floating glaciers; tongues and ice shelves
  • Antarctic Iceshelves (NSIDC)
  • JPL Antarctica Picture Archive
  • Glaciers of North America, Williams and FerrigIce shelves (USGS PDF)
• Ice Field/Transection glacier:
  • Southern Patagonia Ice Fields, Chile and Argentina
  • Nasa's Geomorphology from Space
  • Alaskan Ice Fields
• Ice caps
  • Mountain ice cap (Vatnajokull in Iceland, Jotedalsbreen in Norway)
  • Lowland ice cap (Barnes ice cap on Baffin Island)
    • Ice caps, Simmons Peninsula, SW Elllesmere Island
• Continental ice sheet: Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets

 

First order classification	Second Order classification
Ice sheet and ice cap unconstrained by topography	Ice dome (sheet flow) ice stream (streaming flow) Outlet glacier (streaming flow)
Glaciers constrained or controlled by topography	icefield and transection glaciers valley glacier cirque glacer niche glacier, ice aprons, etc
Marine glaciers	ice rise (locally grounded dome) glacier ice shelf sea-ice ice shelf

• Ice domes and shelves are typically characterized by sheet flow that is either uninfluenced or very marginally influenced by topography. Marginal glaciers of domes and glaciers constrained by topography are characterized by streaming flow.

Required Viewing:

• Ice of all shapes and sizes in Ice, Rice University
• Glaciers: in Nasa's Geomorphology from Space

(modified from Emblem and King, 1975)

• Active: Rapidly moving glacier. Typically has high rates of accumulation and ablation (high net balance gradient).
• Passive: Slow moving glacier
  • may occur in flat areas where lack of slope inhibits flow, or where
  • accumulation is minimal (low mass balance gradient) and response to changes in mass balance are sluggish
• Dead: Climatically dead glacier no longer receiving accumulation. Movement occurs only in response to slope. 
• Surging glaciers: Dynamically variable; cycling through periods of slow movement and thickening, rapid movement (e.g. km/day) and thinning, followed by stagnation.
  • Examples: Hubbard Glacier, S. Ak, Trapridge Glacier St. Elias Range
• Tidewater glacier: A grounded, nonfloating glacier that terminates in and is strongly affected by a marine environment. Tidewater glaciers typically have high flow velocities and steep terminal fronts.

• Warm-based, cold-based, and polythermal glaciers (Discussed under Thermal Regime)
  • Cold based outlet glacier, Canon Fiord Ellesmere Island (CanadianLandforms)

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Present Day Glaciers

• Antarctic Ice Sheet
  • contains 81% of worlds fresh water & 91% of worlds fresh water ice
  • 4000 m thick in many places (±ave. 2.5 km)
  • Divided by the Transarctic Mountains which form a line of nunataks
  • West Antarctic - Thickest part: overlies rugged lowlands presently depressed below sea level
  • East Antarctic - Thinner: overlies rugged highlands
  • peripheral glaciers include valley glaciers, outlet glaciers and ice shelves. Ice shelves form 30% of coast. 
• Greenland Ice Sheet
  • Contains 8% of worlds fresh water
  • Fills a basin rimed by mountains
  • 3000 m thick
• Iceland (Vatnajokull and surrounding outlet glaciers) Map of Iceland
• Alaskan Glaciers (Malispina piedmont glacier, coastal Ak, St. Elias ice fields and Seward Glacier; Wrangell Mountains; Chugach Mountains) 
  • Alaskan Glaciers: Malispina Glacier, Bering Glacier, Mt. Wrangell, Black Rapids Glacier
  • Nasa Multimedia history of Glacier Bay
• **** USGS: Completed portions of the Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World
  • Trevor J.H. Chinn 1, 2000, Satellite image atlas of glaciers of the world, Glaciers of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, and New Zealand <http://pubs.usgs.gov/prof/p1386h/nzealand/nzealand.html >
  • Satellite image atlas of glaciers of the world, South America, http://pubs.usgs.gov/prof/p1386i/title.html
    • Lliboutry, Glaciers of Chile and Argentina
  • U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1386-J, Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World, North America,, Edited by Richard S. Williams, Jr., and Jane G. Ferrigno http://http://pubs.usgs.gov/prof/p1386j/

[Glacial and Quaternary Geology] [extended GeoIndex][QkRef][Geological Sciences] [Degree Programs] [Salem State College]
Lindley Hanson (email) Last Modified 2/27/03