Science·Polar Regions·conceptual
Glaciers & Ice Sheets
Understand how glaciers and ice sheets form and behave — snow accumulates over centuries and compresses into dense ice, glaciers flow slowly downhill under their own weight carving U-shaped valleys and depositing moraines; the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets together hold enough ice to raise sea levels by over 65 metres; and ice cores drilled from these sheets contain trapped air bubbles that reveal Earth's climate history going back 800,000 years
Suggested ages 9–11
Evidence of understanding
- Describe how glaciers form: snow accumulates, compresses, and becomes dense ice that flows slowly under its own weight
- Explain that the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets hold enough water to raise sea levels dramatically if melted
- Describe how ice cores reveal climate history through trapped air bubbles from hundreds of thousands of years ago
Assessment prompt
Can Glaciers & Ice Sheets explain how glaciers form from layers of snow pressed into ice, how they slowly carve valleys, and that scientists drill into ice sheets to learn about Earth's climate thousands of years ago?
Standards alignment
No external standards are linked to this topic.