Social Studies Activities

Globe Activity

Follow Molly Q's journey through the water cycle by finding the locations she travels to on a globe or map.

	Molly Q begins her journey in the Humboldt Glacier near the Magnetic North pole in Greenland.  Locate  on Greenland's northwest coast.
	The ocean current carries her along the coast of Canada.
	She crosses the Atlantic in the Gulf Stream and continues south off the coast of Spain.
	She follows the coast of Africa to Senegal.
	She crosses back across the Atlantic and into the Gulf of Mexico past Florida.
	She splashes onto the beach in Texas.
	Molly Q evaporates into the air and joins a rain cloud which is carried inland.
	She rains to the ground in Austin, Texas, where she seeps into the Edwards Aquifer.
	She transpires in San Antonio Texas.
	Molly Q travels on air currents to St Louis Missouri where she freezes into hail and falls to the ground.
	Run-off deposits her into the Mississippi River.
	The Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Where Molly Q is caught in a puddle on the shore.
	Molly Q evaporates once again and is carried north and freezes into a snowflake.  Where will she land next?

The "Cresis Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets" website includes a map of the Humboldt and Greenland's other glaciers at: Greenland Glaciers.

The "Encyclopedia of Earth", website has an excellent water current map that can help you follow Molly Q ocean journeys.  You can view it at:  Water Current Map

Glacier Facts

Most glaciers form near the poles, however glaciers can form anywhere that has lots of snow fall and cool summers.

Glaciers grow from the snowfall which compacts.

Gravity causes glaciers to move slowly downhill forming a frozen river.

Glaciers push the ground forward as they move and carve great U-shaped valleys.

Glacial streams caused by melting are very cold and contain lots of dirt causing the water to be very murky.

When chunks of ice break away from the glacier it is called calving. 

These chunks  are called ice bergs.

The ice in a glacier or Ice bergs can be very blue in color, because it is very condensed.

Glacial ice can evaporate directly from a solid ice form into water vapor.  This process is called sublimation.

Locating Glaciers

Locate and mark glaciers around the world using the "NOAA Satellite Information Service" website.  They have an excellent interactive GIS map.  You can view it at : GIS Glacier Map . (For some reason this site does not like internet users to enter from links.  So ones you arrive close the pop-up and surf through their pages to re-enter the GIS map.  It is worth the extra trouble this site is awesome!)