Elizabeth Clifford

23905008

ADI Investigation Report

Introduction and Guiding Question
A glacier is a large moving mass of ice. Glaciers form when snow is packed down
so hard it turns to ice. This only occurs in places with low temperatures (such as
Greenland and Antarctica), and places with higher elevation (such as the Alps). The
question we were attempting to answer in this investigation was, How do climate
conditions affect the size of a glacier? Glaciers can grow or shrink depending on
climate conditions. Our goal was to determining how the sea-level air temperature
affects the height and length of a glacier.
Method
During this investigation we used a computer simulation (Phet) that allowed us to
change the sea-level air temperature and the amount of snowfall on a glacier. From this
simulation we could determine how a glacier would respond to these changes. My
group collected data on a glacier resulting from changes to the sea-level air
temperature. During this experiment we kept the average annual snowfall at 3.1 feet. After
500 years we measured the thickness and length of the glacier using the ice thickness tool
and the GPS navigator tool provided in the simulation. We did this experiment at 66.2F,
64.2F, 62.2F, 60.2F, 58.2F, and 56.2F. Our reason for doing this is that 66.2 is the
default temperature so we just decreased the temperature by 2 each time. We used a table
to show the data and a graph to present the data so it is easier to interpret the trend in the
data set.

The Argument
As the sea-level air temperature decreases, the height and length of a glacier
increases. Our data supports this claim. For a glacier to grow in our simulation, with a
constant annual snowfall, the temperature must decrease. As seen in my graph, the length
of a glacier quickly rises before steadying off. This is the same for the height. When the sealevel air temperature was 66.2F the height was 416.4 feet and the distance is 17,257 feet,
but when the sea- level air temperature dropped to 62.2F the height was 1136.5 feet and
the distance is 132,894 feet. As you can see the height and distance grew. The data plots
on the graph and the data set in the table show our claim is valid. Without this evidence, our
claim would just be a prediction.
Sea-Level Air Temperature (F.)

66.2

64.2

62.2

60.2

58.2

56.2

Height (ft.)

416.4

1001.8

1136.5

1220.4

1286.7

1332.7

Distance (ft.)

17,257 102,854 132, 894

154,003 170,177 185,269

We note the glacier in the simulation is in the mountains. A glacier in the mountains
is called a valley glacier. If the glacier was a continental glacier, then the temperature would
have to be even colder than we tested in the simulation. We believe that testing the sealevel air temperature on a continental glacier would be a good follow-up analysis to this one.
If global warming was a factor in this experiment, we would have observed different results.
Global warming is an increase in the temperature of the planet. A glacier in this scenario
would start shrinking instead of growing. Future glacial formation would be difficult and
existing glaciers would shrink until they would simply melt away. Our evidence supports this
warming theory. You can see on both the graph and the data set that the warmer the
temperature the shorter and thinner the glacier is.