Paraglacial
Encyclopedia
Paraglacial means unstable conditions caused by a significant relaxation time in processes and geomorphic
patterns following glacial climates. Rates of landscape change and sediment output from the system are typically elevated during paraglacial landscape response.
When a large mass of ice melts, the newly exposed landscape is free of vegetation and is generally unstable. Often, the retreating glacial is providing the area with high stream discharge, further increasing erosion. The combination of a lack of vegetation, high discharge, and a changing climate (the cause of deglaciation) forces ecological communities
, sediment deposition patterns and surface morphology to adjust to the new conditions over time.
Periglacial
processes—those that directly involve ice—may be prominent in the early stages of paraglacial landscape response, but the two terms are not synonymous. Many geomorphic processes that don't require freezing conditions—for example fluvial erosion, transport and deposition—are typically involved in paraglacial change.
Geomorphology
Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...
patterns following glacial climates. Rates of landscape change and sediment output from the system are typically elevated during paraglacial landscape response.
When a large mass of ice melts, the newly exposed landscape is free of vegetation and is generally unstable. Often, the retreating glacial is providing the area with high stream discharge, further increasing erosion. The combination of a lack of vegetation, high discharge, and a changing climate (the cause of deglaciation) forces ecological communities
Biocoenosis
A biocoenosis , coined by Karl Möbius in 1877, describes the interacting organisms living together in a habitat . This term is rarely used in English, as this concept has not been popularized in Anglophone countries...
, sediment deposition patterns and surface morphology to adjust to the new conditions over time.
Periglacial
Periglacial
Periglacial is an adjective originally referring to places in the edges of glacial areas, but it has later been widely used in geomorphology to describe any place where geomorphic processes related to freezing of water occur...
processes—those that directly involve ice—may be prominent in the early stages of paraglacial landscape response, but the two terms are not synonymous. Many geomorphic processes that don't require freezing conditions—for example fluvial erosion, transport and deposition—are typically involved in paraglacial change.
See also
- Ballantyne, C.K. (2002) Paraglacial Geomorphology. Quaternary Science Reviews, 21, 1935-2017.
- Benn, D.I. and Evans, D.J.A., Glaciers and Glaciation, (1998) ISBN 0-340-65303-5 or 0-340-58431-9 (paperback), Section 7.6.
- Iturrizaga, L. (1999). Typical debris accumulation forms and formations in High Asia. A glacial-history-based concept of the origin of Postglacial debris accumulation landscapes in subtropical high mountains with selected examples from the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram and the Himalayas. In: GeoJournal, Tibet and High Asia V, vol. 47, 277-339.
- Iturrizaga, L. (2008). Paraglacial landform assemblages in the Hindukush and Karakoram Mountains. In: Geomorphology, 95, Issues 1-2, 27-47.