How can we tell what direction glaciers move?

How can we tell what direction glaciers move?

Fun Fact: Ice flow direction is determined by the glacier surface: a glacier will always flow in the direction the ice is sloping. This means a glacier can flow up hills beneath the ice as long as the ice surface is still sloping downward.

What are striations and what do they tell us?

In geology, a striation is a groove, created by a geological process, on the surface of a rock or a mineral. In structural geology, striations are linear furrows, or linear marks, generated from fault movement. The striation’s direction reveals the movement direction in the fault plane.

What are glacial striations and how can they relate to plate tectonics?

Also, glacial striations (essentially ‘cut marks’) found in rocks from the movement of this ice sheet show that the direction in which it was moving was outwards from a central point in southern Africa. If the continents are set adjacent to one another at the south pole, these striations line up with each other.

What are glacial striations What do they tell about a glacier quizlet?

Glacial Striations: Scratches and grooves on bedrock caused by glacial abrasion.

How do striations form?

As glaciers flow over land, they incorporate pieces of rock and sediment into the ice. Over time, the glacier moves over rock and sediment, leaving striations or striae, on the rock surfaces that can reveal the direction that the glacier was flowing.

What kind of information do glacial striations reveal about past glaciers?

Glacier scientists often use striations to determine the direction that the glacier was flowing, and in places where the glacier flowed in different directions over time, they can tease out this complex flow history by looking at the layered striations.

What kind of information do glacial striations reveal about past glaciers group of answer choices?

Geologists can tell in what direction an ancient glacier moved by studying striations left in rock. Glaciers eventually deposit their loads of rock, dirt, and gravel. These materials are called moraine. Piles of moraine dumped at a glacier’s end, or snout, are called terminal moraines.