Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A glaciated valley in the Altai Mountains showing the characteristic U shape. Malyovitsa U-shaped valley, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria U-shaped valley in Leh valley, Ladakh, NW Indian Himalaya. The glacier visible at the head of the valley is the last remnant of the formerly much more extensive glacier which carved it.
[4] [16] The formation of valley glaciers is restricted by formations such as terminal moraines, which are collections of till (unconsolidated rock material) deposited by the terminus of the glacier. Ice-free exposed bedrock and slopes often surround valley glaciers, [17] providing a route for snow and ice to accumulate on the glacier via ...
Kettle lake: Depression, formed by a block of ice separated from the main glacier, in which the lake forms; Tarn: A lake formed in a cirque by overdeepening; Paternoster lake: A series of lakes in a glacial valley, formed when a stream is dammed by successive recessional moraines left by an advancing or retreating glacier
A glacier that fills a valley is called a valley glacier, or alternatively, an alpine glacier or mountain glacier. [13] A large body of glacial ice astride a mountain, mountain range, or volcano is termed an ice cap or ice field. [14] Ice caps have an area less than 50,000 km 2 (19,000 sq mi) by definition.
The main glacier erodes a deep U-shaped valley with nearly vertical sides, while the tributary glacier, with a smaller volume of ice, makes a shallower U-shaped valley. Since the surfaces of the glaciers were originally at the same elevation , the shallower valley appears to be 'hanging' above the main valley.
A kame delta (or ice-contact delta, morainic delta [1]) is a glacial landform formed by a stream of melt water flowing through or around a glacier and depositing material, known as kame (stratified sequence of sediments) deposits. Upon entering a proglacial lake at the end (terminus) of a glacier, the river/stream deposit these sediments. This ...
A medial moraine is a ridge of moraine that runs down the center of a valley floor. It forms when two glaciers meet and the debris on the edges of the adjacent valley sides join and are carried on top of the enlarged glacier. As the glacier melts or retreats, the debris is deposited and a ridge down the middle of the valley floor is created.
As a glacier moves down a valley, friction causes the basal ice of the glacier to melt and infiltrate joints (cracks) in the bedrock. The freezing and thawing action of the ice enlarges, widens, or causes further cracks in the bedrock as it changes volume across the ice/water phase transition (a form of hydraulic wedging), gradually loosening ...