ABSTRACT
This chapter will examine the valley glacier system in some detail before looking briefly at ice-sheets. It includes a section on periglacial landscapes which may be found in the areas of Northern Canada and Siberia adjacent to the ice-sheets but not actually covered by ice throughout the year. Glaciers normally start as accumulations of ice in pre-existing river valleys. A glacier can move downslope in several ways. Within a particular glacier, the point of maximum velocity and ice discharge is usually at the point of maximum ice thickness, which is found somewhere near the mid-point of the glacier. As a transporting agent, a glacier, like a river, carries the debris of denudation from the adjacent hillslopes. The backs of most cirque glaciers have enormous crevasses which penetrate some distance into the ice below the backface. In addition to terminal moraines, lateral moraine may be formed along the sides of a stagnating glacier.
