Exam 17: Cenozoic Earth History the Quaternary Period

Dark-light couplets of sedimentary laminations representing an annual deposit in a glacial lake are ____________________.

The zone of a glacier in which additions of ice exceed losses is called ____.

At their maximum extent, how much land did glaciers cover?

On which landmass does a continental glacier exist?

Volcanoes in the Cascade Range and Yellowstone have remained active during the Pleistocene glaciations.

Increased glaciation is commonly associated with higher sea levels.

The Milankovitch theory explains the onset of glacial epochs as a result of major plate tectonic activity.

It is predicted that as carbon dioxide levels rise, Earth will ____.

During the Pleistocene glaciation, temperatures fluctuated by as much as 10^o C.

Areas of Scandinavia are rising as a result of isostatic rebound.

Any lake formed of meltwater accumulating along the margin of a glacier is classified as a(n) ____________________ lake

The Earth is presently experiencing a glacial period.

Mountain valleys that are U-shaped are most likely the result of erosion by a valley glacier.

Compare and contrast erosional and depositional glacial landforms. How do they form? Provide examples.

A steep-walled, bowl-shaped depression formed on a mountainside by glacial erosion is called a(n) ____________________.

Compare and contrast pluvial and proglacial lakes.

Although the last major ice sheets receded 10,000 years ago, pollen and tree ring data exist to indicate that since 6,000 years ago, there have been small glacial advances and retreats.

The higher abundance of O¹⁶ in glacial ice occurs because it is the lighter oxygen isotope; it evaporates more easily than O¹⁸ and then is precipitated as snow.

Evaporite deposits such as borates formed as a result of the drying up of large pluvial lakes in the western United States.

Several species of planktonic foraminifera are sensitive to climate change.