The Cryosphere

• The last ice age was 12,000 years ago and it was called the Pleistocene.
• During the last ice age, sea level was around 120 metres lower. The English Channel was dry land due to lower temperatures.
• The last ice age was thought to have covered 32% of the land and 30% of the oceans.
• Glaciers occupy about 10% of all the world's land areas, such as polar regions. For example, Greenland and Antartica.
• Sublimation is when glaciers evaporate into water vapour.
• Ablation is where the ice melts into the ocean and stays melted due to the salt.
• Glacier movement is caused by gravity, due being formed on a slope.
• The speed at which glaciers move is largely determined by friction.
• If the amount of accumulation increases, the glacier gains mass and then causes the entire mass to move downhill faster.
• Little accumulation means the glacier will move downhill more slowly, allowing the lower end of the glacier to melt faster than it's being replaced.
• Snow and Ice have high albedos meaning the solar input is more quickly reflected back into the atmosphere where global warming will continue to rise.
• An albedo is a measure of the reflectivity of a surface.