Global Distribution

Question 1

What are glacial environments?

What are the major glacial environments?

Answer 1

Covered by ice sheets and glaciers.
Antarctica - covers 13 million km2 - 2,000m deep ice.
Greenland.

Question 2

Where do cold environments mainly occur?

Answer 2

Areas of high latitude.
High mountainous areas e.g. Alpine region.
Arctic - variable sea ice.
Areas of permafrost.

Question 3

What are the characteristics of cold environments?

Answer 3

Severely cold temperatures.
An abundance of snow and ice.
Sparse vegetation.
Difficult to exploit.

Question 4

Where do periglacial and tundra areas exist?
What are some examples of these areas?
What are some characteristics of these areas?

Answer 4

In dry high-latitude areas which aren’t permanently covered by snow and ice.
Northern Alaska and Canada.
Conditions - permafrost and sparse vegetation.

Question 5

What are the characteristics of alpine regions?

What are some examples of this?

Answer 5

Small ice caps, mountain glaciers and tundra environments.

Asia (Himalayas) and Americas (Andes and Rockies).

Question 6

How much of the world could be considered as a ‘cold environment’?

Answer 6

25%.

Question 7

When was the last ice age?

Answer 7

2 million years ago until 10,000 BP.
Peaked at 18,000 years ago.
Quaternary period.
Impact was marked in the British landscape.
Evidence can be seen in the landforms of today.

Question 8

Why does the climate keep changing? 5

Answer 8

1. Milankovitch cycles - theories about the variations in the way that the Earth rotates around the sun and changes in the Earth’s tilt.
2. Changes in the amount and composition of volcanic dust and aerosols following major eruptions.
3. Changes in the location of the Earth’s land masses.
4. Variations in sunspot activity.
5. Carbon and methane trapping in peat bogs, tundra and the oceans.

Question 9

What lasts longer in terms of the interglacial period and the glacial period?

Answer 9

Glacial periods have lasted longer that interglacial periods and that the temperatures of glacials have dropped lower than the rises of the interglacials.

Question 10

Where is the majority of the world’s ice located?

Answer 10

96% is located in Antarctica and Greenland.

Question 11

What are interstadials and stadials?

Answer 11

Glacial periods can be interrupted by interstadials - short term retreats in the extent of ice.
Vice versa.

Question 12

How has the climate varied in the last one million years?

Answer 12

Glacial periods last longer than interglacial periods.

Temperatures of glacial periods have dropped lower than the temperature rise in interglacial periods.