Glacial Erosion Of Conveyor Belt

The ever-changing face of the earth can be an awesome sight to behold. Watching nature at work on what we term as "unchangeable" surfaces can truly give us a whole new perspective on things. We interpret things differently. Take for example, our common expression of "like a rock", used to refer to something immovable. But to forces like the erosion of glacial conveyor belts, a rock can be moved.

Glacial conveyor belts are called thus because they do move objects. Much like a big conveyor belt, glaciers pick up rocks and earth and then deposit them down the path. Many people think that glaciers are stationary bits of nature. This perception may have been brought on by the size of glaciers. Staring at something so huge, people can only assume that it is fixed.

However, glaciers do move. Some glaciers move so sluggishly that trees can grow between their cracks. Some move so quickly that their speed can be measured in terms of meters per day. As the glaciers move, they change the surface of the earth through erosion. There are two distinct types of erosion caused by glaciers:

1) Plucking – With this type of erosion, the glaciers actually plucks pieces of bedrock, moves them and then deposits them somewhere else. How is this possible? Well, this usually happens when there are pre-existing cracks in the earth. When the glacier moves over the cracks, the bottom ice melts a bit and moisture seeps down the cracks.

The moisture penetrates into the bedrock. As the glacier continues to move on top of the crack, the temperature keeps getting lower until it gets cold enough to re-freeze the moisture. When the moisture refreezes, it clings to bits of bedrock and soil.

The now frozen bit of moisture gets connected to the main body of the glacier. As the glacier continues to move, the frozen spike of moisture gets dragged with it and with that bit, bits of bedrock and soil get plucked up from the earth.

Think of a glacier as a giant pore strip. Bits of earth stick to it and they get plucked out. These bits are then carried along by the "conveyor belt" until they are deposited somewhere else.

2) Abrasion – In this erosion of glacial conveyor belts, you need to visualize sandpaper. Think of the glacier as a giant piece of sandpaper and the earth as the wood that needs to be smoothened.

In this type of erosion, the bottom of the glacial conveyor belt scrapes against the earth and scratches it. As the earth gets battered by the onslaught of the flowing ice, it changes. Any prominent features are scraped off, leaving the earth leveled and smooth.

Today, you may know of a nearby area where a smooth bed of rock is. This may be the result of an ancient glacial conveyor belt.

In this type of erosion, the pieces scraped by the bottom of the glacier may either stick to the bottom or get pushed to the front of the glacier, where it is rendered mobile by the forces propelling the glacier.

These are the two main types of erosion of glacial conveyor belts. Glaciers may not change the earth quickly, but they do change it and they are unstoppable, which makes them a formidable force of nature indeed.

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