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Glacial landforms are landforms created by the action of glaciers. Most of today's glacial landforms were created by the movement of large ice sheets during the Quaternary glaciations . Some areas, like Fennoscandia and the southern Andes , have extensive occurrences of glacial landforms; other areas, such as the Sahara , display rare and very ...
Periglaciation (adjective: "periglacial", referring to places at the edges of glacial areas) describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing and freezing, very often in areas of permafrost. The meltwater may refreeze in ice wedges and other structures.
Kettles are fluvioglacial landforms occurring as the result of blocks of ice calving from the front of a receding glacier and becoming partially to wholly buried by glacial outwash. Glacial outwash is generated when streams of meltwater flow away from the glacier and deposit sediment to form broad outwash plains called sandurs. When the ice ...
However, with the continuous melting of the glacier, the kame delta eventually collapses onto the land surface, furthering the "kame and kettle" topography. Kame terraces are frequently found along the side of a glacial valley and are stratified deposits of meltwater streams flowing between the ice and the adjacent valley side. [ 4 ]
A nunatak (from Inuit nunataq) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also called glacial islands, [2] and smaller nunataks rounded by glacial action may be referred to as rognons. [3] [4]
Glacier morphology, or the form a glacier takes, is influenced by temperature, precipitation, topography, and other factors. [1] The goal of glacial morphology is to gain a better understanding of glaciated landscapes and the way they are shaped. [ 2 ]
A bergschrund (from the German for mountain cleft; sometimes abbreviated in English to "schrund") is a crevasse that forms where moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice or firn above. [1] It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineers. Bergschrunds extend to the bedrock, and can have a depth of well over 100 metres (330 ft).
A valley glacier cannot avoid the interlocking spurs as a river can. As the valley glacier moves, abrasion and plucking erode the protruding tips of the spurs, leaving steep cliff-like truncated spurs. Hanging valleys are found in between truncated spurs as they join the main glacial valley from the side. It is common for waterfalls to form ...