New York and the Ice Ages

In cold climates, where average temperatures stay below freezing, water falls as snow. This snow can build up into thick layers. If the snow does not melt, increasing pressure causes the snow below to form layers of solid ice. If this continues year after year, a glacier may form. Glaciers are accumulations of ice large enough to survive the summer melt. A glacier is a thick mass of ice that may cover an area as small as a baseball field and as large as a continent.

In this week's lesson, we will learn how glaciers form and erode the land. We will also describe features caused by glaciers.

Homework # 4: Due Tuesday, March 4, 2009

Textbook: read chapter 15.1, pages 318-321; do section review questions 1-5, page 320.

Quiz on relationship of transported particle size to water velocity, Monday, March 2, 2009

Class work will include the completion of "What is a Glacier?". This work will be counted as an open book quiz. It will be collected Thursday, March 5, 2009.

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