Landscape image interpretation task
• View the images in each of these slides.
• There is a question beneath each image –
attempt to answer each one.
• Note down your answers so that you can
review them later or use them as part of a
class discussion.
The Alps (Switzerland)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Matterhorn#mediaviewer/File:Valais_mountain
s.jpg
Blue Ridge Mountains, South Carolina, USA
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Ridge_Mountains_at_Tamassee,_Sou
th_Carolina.jpg?uselang=en-gb
Ignoring the fact that one of the images has snow and ice in it and the other does not,
What differences do you notice in the shapes of the two landscapes?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weathering_freeze_thaw_action,_Spain.jpg?uselang=en-gb
Luis Paquito
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shingle_Beach_-_geograph.org.uk_-_580940.jpg?uselang=en-gb
Anne Burgess
Why are the rocks sharp and jagged in the mountain photo and smooth and rounded at the beach?
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA
DEA
The sharp edged, angular rocks on this slope are called pieces of ‘scree’ (or ‘talus’).
Can you think of what ‘physical weathering’ process has broken up the rock into
these pieces? And how does it work?
Blue Glacier, Olympic Range, Washington State, USA
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Olympus_Blue_Glacier_from_Lateral_Moraine
_Panorama.jpg?uselang=en-gb
Aaron Linville
Notice the rocky debris along the sides of this glacier (called ‘lateral moraine’)
Viewed close up, the pieces of rock would be jagged and angular as in the
previous photo. Where has this rocky debris come from, and how do you think it
got to the glacier?
A photo looking underneath a glacier
http://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/glossary/glaciersole-en.html
J.Alean & M.Hambrey
How do you think pieces of rock debris can get picked up by the glacier
as it moves over the ground? Hint: there is melting and refreezing of water
beneath glaciers.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glacial_striations.JPG?uselang=en-gb
These scratches (glacial ‘striations’) formed in the past when a glacier was in this valley.
Can you describe the process that caused the scratches on this rock outcrop?
Hint: glaciers move rocky debris inside and under them as well as along the surface.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vshaped_valley_below_Craig_y_Gath_-_geograph.org.uk__811259.jpg?uselang=en-gb
Rudi Winter
One of these valleys was eroded out by a
glacier. Describe the shapes of the two valleys
and suggest reasons for the difference.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UShaped_valley,_Glen_Clova_-_geograph.org.uk__477230.jpg?uselang=en-gb
Gwen and James Anderson
Hummocky moraine in north-west Scotland
DEA
Describe the shape of the piles of rocky debris in the photograph. Why do you think
this can be interpreted as the work of glacier ice rather than of running water?
Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
DEA
What evidence is there in this photo that glaciers extended further down the
mountain slopes in the past?
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Snowdonia#mediaviewer/File:Sn
owdon_massif.jpg
Snowdonia, north Wales
What evidence is there in this photo that this area used to have glaciers?