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Vassar Glacier is a 4.3-mile (6.9 km) long glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. It trends southeast to College Fjord , 2 mi (3.2 km) west of College Point and 52 mi (84 km) west of Valdez . It was named for Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York , by members of the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition .
A hanging glacier originates high on the wall of a glacial valley and descends only part of the way to the surface of the main glacier and abruptly stops, typically at a cliff. [1] Avalanching and icefalls are the mechanisms for ice and snow transfer to the valley floor below. [1] Hanging glaciers are inherently unstable, and may produce ...
A hanging glacier appears in a hanging valley, and has the potential to break off from the side of the mountain it is attached to. [12] [20] As bits and pieces of hanging glaciers break off and begin to fall, avalanches can be triggered. [20] Examples include: Eiger Glacier, Switzerland; Angel Glacier, Canada
Snow appears white, glaciers appear bright blue, and land surfaces with vegetation on them appear red. Although the two-dimensional image makes it appear that the glaciers along the western side of the fjord simply fill in great ravines, in reality, the glaciers tumble down toward the water over steep hillsides like frozen waterfalls.
As the glaciers expand, due to their accumulating weight of snow and ice they crush, abrade, and scour surfaces such as rocks and bedrock. The resulting erosional landforms include striations , cirques , glacial horns , arêtes , trim lines , U-shaped valleys , roches moutonnées , overdeepenings and hanging valleys .
Fox Glacier, New Zealand. A serac (/ s ɛ ˈ r æ k ˌ ˈ s ɛ r æ k /) (from Swiss French sérac) is a block or column of glacial ice, often formed by intersecting crevasses on a glacier. Commonly house-sized or larger, they are dangerous to mountaineers, since they may topple with little warning. Even when stabilized by persistent cold ...
Glaciers, typically forming in drainages on the sides of a mountain, develop bowl-shaped basins called cirques (sometimes called 'corries' – from Scottish Gaelic coire [kʰəɾə] (a bowl) – or cwm s). Cirque glaciers have rotational sliding that abrades the floor of the basin more than walls and that causes the bowl shape to form.
Cyclopean stairs can also form at points where tributary glaciers feed into larger central glaciers. The tributary glacier causes the central glacier to thicken and downcut more rapidly. This may cause a very sudden drop in the valley floor at the points where the glaciers converged. They may also form at the head of a glacier.