science

West Northwall Firn

West Northwall Firn is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand West Northwall Firn rather than just read about it. In short: The West Northwall Firn was a glacial body on Mount Carstensz in the Sudirman Range on the island of New Guinea in Central Papua province, Indonesia. The glacier was situated at an elevation of approximately 4,600 metres (15,100 ft) to 4,750 metres (15,580 ft), centered a little over 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) northwest of Ngga Pulu and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) of Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid), the highest peak of Oceania.

Key takeaways

West Northwall Firn belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect West Northwall Firn to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of West Northwall Firn from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The West Northwall Firn was a glacial body on Mount Carstensz in the Sudirman Range on the island of New Guinea in Central Papua province, Indonesia. The glacier was situated at an elevation of approximately 4,600 metres (15,100 ft) to 4,750 metres (15,580 ft), centered a little over 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) northwest of Ngga Pulu and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) of Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid), the highest peak of Oceania.

Sometime between 1936 and 1962, a single Northwall Firn split into several separate glaciers, the largest being the West Northwall Firn and the East Northwall Firn. Research presented in 2004 of IKONOS satellite imagery of the New Guinean glaciers indicated that in the two years from 2000 to 2002, the West Northwall Firn had lost a further 19.4% of its surface area. The glacial ice on Puncak Jaya was found to be about 32 meters (105 feet) thick and thinning at a rate of 7 meters (23 feet) per year during an expedition there in 2010. At that rate, the remaining glaciers in the immediate region near Puncak Jaya were expected to last only to the year 2015. Indeed, in or before 2017, the West Northwall Firn had completely disappeared. The West Northwall Firn was a remnant glacier of an icecap that in 1850 measured about 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi) and had developed approximately 5,000 years ago. At least one previous icecap also existed in the region between 15,000 and 7,000 years ago, when it also apparently melted away and disappeared.

See also Retreat of glaciers since 1850 List of glaciers

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with West Northwall Firn

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what West Northwall Firn claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to West Northwall Firn before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about West Northwall Firn ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of West Northwall Firn

In research: West Northwall Firn appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses West Northwall Firn in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: West Northwall Firn is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Former glaciers, Glacier stubs, Glaciers of Western New Guinea, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for West Northwall Firn outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study West Northwall Firn in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what West Northwall Firn means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain West Northwall Firn out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is West Northwall Firn in simple terms?

Why does West Northwall Firn matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study West Northwall Firn?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on West Northwall Firn.