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TerraPrinter Classroom · Worksheet · Ages 11–16
Glaciers and U-shaped valleys
Name Class Date
A glacier is a river of ice. It moves slowly downhill and scrapes the rock beneath it, carving wide valleys with steep sides. Use the models of the Lauterbrunnen Valley and the Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland.
Open a link in a web browser to see the model in 3D, or use the printed model from your teacher.
Look straight down the Lauterbrunnen valley and sketch its cross-section.
Is the Lauterbrunnen valley U-shaped or V-shaped? Give two pieces of evidence from the model.
Side valleys end high above the main valley floor. What are these called, and what happens to their streams?
On the Aletsch model, where does the ice start, and which way does it flow?
The Aletsch Glacier is about 20 km long, the longest in the Alps. The model is 150 mm across for 25 km. How long should the glacier be on the print? Use a piece of string to measure along it.
There is no glacier in the Lauterbrunnen valley now. What does its shape tell you about the past?
If the Aletsch Glacier melted away, what kind of valley would it leave behind? What else might you find there?
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TerraPrinter Classroom, CC BY 4.0: free to copy and adapt with credit.
TerraPrinter Classroom · For the teacher
Answer key: Glaciers and U-shaped valleys
Learning goals
Tell a glacier-carved U-shaped valley from a river-cut V-shaped valley.
Identify hanging valleys, steep valley walls and a valley glacier.
Connect today's landscape to past ice ages.
Answers
Look straight down the Lauterbrunnen valley and sketch its cross-section.A U shape: a wide, flat floor with very steep, almost vertical rock walls.
Is the Lauterbrunnen valley U-shaped or V-shaped? Give two pieces of evidence from the model.U-shaped. Evidence: a wide flat floor, steep straight walls, and a fairly straight valley (a glacier cuts through the spurs that a river would wind round).
Side valleys end high above the main valley floor. What are these called, and what happens to their streams?Hanging valleys. Their streams pour over the edge as waterfalls. Staubbach Falls in Lauterbrunnen drops nearly 300 m.
On the Aletsch model, where does the ice start, and which way does it flow?It starts in the high snowfields in the north, where several ice streams meet (Konkordiaplatz, below the Jungfrau). It flows downhill to the south and then south-west, towards lower, warmer ground where it melts.
The Aletsch Glacier is about 20 km long, the longest in the Alps. The model is 150 mm across for 25 km. How long should the glacier be on the print? Use a piece of string to measure along it.20 km ÷ 25 km × 150 mm = 120 mm. The glacier curves, so a string measurement works best.
There is no glacier in the Lauterbrunnen valley now. What does its shape tell you about the past?A glacier once filled it. In the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, the glaciers in the Alps were much bigger and carved the valley.
If the Aletsch Glacier melted away, what kind of valley would it leave behind? What else might you find there?A U-shaped valley like Lauterbrunnen. There might be a lake where the ice dug deepest, and ridges of rock and gravel (moraines) left at the sides and end of the glacier.
Before the lesson
Print the models at 150 mm wide, 0.2 mm layers, 10–15% infill, no supports. Elevation is the glacier's surface, so the ice prints as part of the terrain. A white filament change at a set height makes the high ground stand out. Measurements on the sheet assume the 150 mm size. Students' measured answers will vary a little with how they measure. Discussion questions and a hands-on activity for this topic: terraprinter.com/classroom/#glaciers
