Erosional Features

Plucking

A process where a glacier freezes to rock and pulls it out as it moves.

Abrasion

The process where rocks frozen in ice scrape the land like sandpaper.

U-Shaped Valley

A wide, deep valley with a flat bottom and steep sides formed when a glacier widens and deepens a river valley.

Hanging Valley

A smaller U-shaped valley located above the main valley, often containing a waterfall, formed by a small tributary glacier.

Fjord

A flooded U-shaped valley formed when a glacial valley near the ocean fills with seawater after the glacier melts.

Cirque

A bowl-shaped hollow with a steep back wall formed when a glacier carves into the side of a mountain.

Tarn

A small lake within a cirque formed by meltwater filling the cirque basin.

Arete

A sharp ridge between two cirques formed when two glaciers erode opposite sides of a mountain.

Horn

A sharp, pyramid-shaped mountain peak formed by the erosion of three or more cirques on all sides.

Roche Moutonnée

An asymmetrical hill of rock formed by glacier abrasion on the uphill side and plucking on the downhill side.

Glacial Striations

Parallel scratches in bedrock formed when rocks frozen in a glacier scratch the ground as the glacier moves.

Glacial-Scoured Lake

A long, narrow, deep lake formed when a glacier gouges out a depression that later fills with water.