Earth to Class

Web Quest: Glaciers

Jean McMahon
Valley Central High School

Name ________________________________________________________

Procedure 1. Use the first link below to learn about ice cores and Antarctica by answering the questions that follow.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/warnings/stories to make a webquest on ice core changes.

1. Initial Page: Ice cores reveal the past. Each layer of ice is __________ and records events such as _______________________________ and ________________________.

2. Click on the icon for Ice Core Timeline. Choose “Air Pollution”. Use the graphs to identify the levels of the following pollutants in 1900 and then in 2000:

Methane___________________- Carbon Dioxide ______________ Nitrates ______________________

3. In that time the world population rose from _____________ people to ______________ people.

4. Choose “Global Warming”. How many years do these ice occurs cover? ________________ What relationship between CO2, methane and warming does this graph indicate? ______________________________________________

What was the warmest period of the past 160, 000 years? ______________________

5. Choose “Sea Storminess”. What may have happened to the Vikings? ____________________________________________________

6. Choose “Antarctic Almanac” from the menu on the left of the webpage. What percent of the world’s total ice does Antarctica contain? _______________

7. How thick is the thickest ice? ______________

8. What does the weight of the ice do to the shape of the earth? ___________

9. Scroll down to “Land”. What is the name of the mountain chain? __________________________ What is the annual mean temperature of Antarctica? _________________

10. Scroll to “Water”. How much precipitation does Antarctica receive per year? _____________

11. What is the circumpolar current? _________________________________

12. What would happen to world sealevels if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt? ________________ If the East sheet melted also? ____________________

13. Scroll to “Vocabulary”. What is the Katabatic? _________________________________ _______________________________

14. Go back to top of page and choose ‘Water World’ from menu. Review the first 3 pictures that show the northeast US 20,000 years ago, if the West sheet melted and if the East sheet melted. Briefly describe the change in sealevel and find the approximate location of Montgomery, NY. How would our situation be different in each?

20,000 years ago: _____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

West sheet melt: ______________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

East sheet melt: _______________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

Procedure 2. Go to the webpage below and answer the following questions about glacial loss.

http://nsidc.org/data/glacier_photo/repeat_photography.html matched photos of glacial change from the page: http://nsidc.org/glaciers

1. Enlarge the picture of the Muir Glacier. Identify the dates photographs were taken. _____________________Describe the ice loss and the features revealed by the retreat of the ice. _______________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

2. Compare the changes in the McCall Glacier to those of the Muir Glacier. _________ ____________________________________________________________________

Procedure 3. View the pictures shown on each of the web pages and answer the simple questions about them.

1. http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=50784 this EPOD picture shows movement of part of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. What are the speeds of the middle __________________ and edges of the glacial ice sheet? _______________

2. http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=92896 What happened to the Larsen B ice shelf? _________________________ . Include the date of the occurrence._________________

3. http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=108640 In your own words, describe what the photograph shows. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

4. http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=120832 What has happened to the “Snows of Kilimanjaro” in the past few decades? ______________ What is the prediction for the glacial snows? ______________________________________

Procedure 4. How the global ice cover changes.

Go to http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/glacier_model.htm from the USGS site and watch the animation that shows both past glacial positions and predicts future positions. Summarize the change. Scroll down to the diagram of the Terrain and then to the diagram that indicates sun strength. Go back to the animation. Is there a connection among terrain height, sun strength and glacier position? ____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

Procedure 5: Check out some pictures.

For a good series of photographs, this page has menus of pictures from different parts of the world. http://www.canada-photos.com/glacier-ice-yukon-territory-464-pictures.htm

ON YOUR OWN: for extra credit on a separate piece of paper http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Observatory/Datasets/snow_ice.smmr.html build an animation that shows the change in snow and ice depth for the past 3 decades. Use 3-4 sentences to fully describe both the seasonal fluctuations evident and the changes occurring over the past few decades.

http://ak.water.usgs.gov/glaciology/gulkana/index.html Gulkana Glacier homepage. Identify changes in ice thickness, mass balance, stream behavior. Find it on a map. How long has it been studied?

Photographs to view on your own. http://www.cosleyhouston.com/news10-02.htm alpine guide.

View topographic maps that identify glacial depositional and erosional features. http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/slaymaker/Archives/Geol10L/landforms.htm landforms on topo maps