Test your knowledge of glacier retreat and other glaciation processes with this 10-question A level quiz.

If you haven't already done it, work through the glacier retreat web enquiry on the PowerPoint. Or look at it again to help fill in any gaps in what you know!

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HIGH SCORES

Rank Name Score
1st KIT 20
2nd fin 20
3rd fin 20
4th fin 20
5th K.B 20
6th AVH 20
7th SSR 20
8th TOM 20
9th JJA 20
10th s c 20

QUIZZES // Evidence of glacial retreat

Q1. Which one of the following describes the loss of ice from a glacier or ice sheet?

Ablation

Accumulation

Mass balance

Abrasion

Q2. Which one of the following can be both an ablation and an accumulation process?

Avalanching

Sublimation

Wind-blown snow

Basal melt

Q3. There is a point on a glacier where annual accumulation exactly matches annual ablation – the ELA. What does ELA stand for?

Equal line of ablation

Equilibrium line altitude

Equal line of accumulation

Exact line of altitude

Q4. Which one of these glacier scenarios would produce glacial retreat?

The amount of ice supplied to the glacier margin from up-glacier is equal to the amount lost by ablation

The amount of ice supplied to the glacier margin from up-glacier exceeds the amount lost by ablation

The amount of ice supplied to the glacier margin from up-glacier is less than the amount lost by ablation

There are seasonal changes in accumulation and ablation

Q5. Which one of these methods is used to measure the seasonal gain and loss of snow/ice from the glacier?

Snow pits

Precision GPS

Aerial photos

Ablation stakes

Q6. The average rate of glacier loss (retreat) per year is currently which one of the following:

-228 mm per year

-443 mm per year

-676 mm per year

-1,247 mm per year

Q7. Which one of the following types of moraine marks the maximum extent of glacier ice?

Recessional moraine

Terminal moraine

Lateral moraine

Medial moraine

Q8. Which of the following could be a way of dating the age of a series of recessional moraines in a glaciated valley?

Vegetation type

Clast orientation

Electric profiling

Cailleux’s Roundness Index

Q9. Which one of the following describes the thinning of a glacier due to the melting of ice?

Nivation

Lodgement

Downwasting

Backwasting

Q10. Paintings, photos, old maps and documents provide evidence that glaciers worldwide were significantly more advanced in the nineteenth century than they are today. What name is given to this period of glacial advance?

Southern Oscillation

Little Ice Age (LIA)

Medieval Warm Period

The Hockey Stick Pattern

Finished!

You scored this time. The more correct answers you give, and the fewer incorrect answers you guess, the better your score.

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