Cold and glacial environments

The big idea: A cold environment is a place where low temperatures dominate the landscape and limit life. Two types matter in Option C:

Glacial environments are covered by ice — ice sheets (Antarctica, Greenland) and mountain glaciers (the Alps, the Himalayas).

Periglacial environments are not under ice but stay frozen — they have permafrost (permanently frozen ground) and an active layer that thaws each summer (much of Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada).

These are extreme environments: hostile to people, with their own processes and hazards, and very sensitive to climate change.

Glacial vs periglacial: Glacial = under ice now (ice sheets, mountain glaciers).

Periglacial = frozen ground (permafrost) but not under ice — a thin active layer thaws each summer.

Both are cold environments, and both are shrinking as the climate warms.

How this is tested: A cold-environment figure is your first task in the data-response: a permafrost or research-station map, a cross-section through an ice sheet, a radial diagram of corrie aspect, or — as below — a segmented diagram of global ice loss. The short command terms cluster here: Describe or Identify a distribution, Estimate a value off an axis or share, and State / calculate an exact figure.

Always quote the units, and describe any location by latitude and compass direction, never longitude alone.

Estimate = a sensible read; State = the exact value: Estimate means read a value off the figure within a tolerance (e.g. about 21%). State means give the exact value shown (e.g. Arctic sea ice lost the most). For a difference, read both values and subtract.

Whether ground stays frozen depends on how cold it is and how slowly it warms. Anything that keeps mean temperatures below freezing — high latitude, high altitude, shade, thick organic soil or snow cover — keeps permafrost intact. Anything that adds heat — a warmer climate, dark bare ground, a south-facing slope (in the northern hemisphere) — thaws the active layer deeper and can melt the permafrost itself.

Antarctica — the great ice sheet: Antarctica holds the world's largest ice sheet, in places over 3 km thick and stretching thousands of kilometres across. Its research stations cluster around the coast and on the Antarctic Peninsula, because the interior is too cold, too high and too remote to supply. The deep interior near the South Pole has almost no buildings.

The Arctic & Alaska — thawing permafrost: Around the Arctic, vast areas of Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada sit on permafrost. As the climate warms the active layer thaws deeper each summer; melting ground slumps, buckling roads and pipelines and releasing methane and carbon dioxide — a feedback that warms the planet further.

The Alps — retreating mountain glaciers: In the Alps, corries high on the mountains once fed valley glaciers. Warmer summers now melt more than winter snow replaces, so the glaciers retreat up-valley, shrinking water supplies and exposing unstable slopes. North-facing corries hold ice longer than sunnier south-facing ones.

Reason + development: For an Outline [2], name the reason then develop it. High altitude (reason) -> air is colder with height, so mean temperatures stay below freezing and the ground does not thaw (development).

Cold environments are hostile to people: Very high-latitude polar regions are among the hardest places on Earth to live and work. Extreme cold, darkness for months, remoteness, frozen or unstable ground and ice cover all limit settlement, farming, transport and construction. This is why Antarctica has only research stations and the high Arctic is thinly populated.

How this is tested — the extended Explain: Paper 1 Option C asks you to Explain how two factors make polar regions difficult for people. It is marked 3 + 3: for each factor, 1 mark for naming a valid factor and up to 2 marks for developing how it hinders human activity. So you must give two factors, each taken to a clear consequence — not just a list.