Glacial landform

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Antique postcard shows rocks

scarred by glacial erosion.

Yosemite Valley from an airplane,

showing the U-shape
 Glacially-plucked granitic bedrock
near Mariehamn, Åland Islands.
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 very old fossil glacial landforms.

Contents
  [hide] 
 1Erosional landforms
 2Depositional landforms
 3Glacial lakes and ponds
 4Ice Features
 5See also
 6External links
Erosional landforms[edit]
Erosional landforms
As the glaciers expanded, due to their accumulating weight of snow and ice, they crush
and abrade scoured surface rocks and bedrock. The resulting erosional
landforms include striations, cirques, glacial horns, arêtes, trim lines, U-shaped valleys, roches
moutonnées,overdeepenings and hanging valleys.

 Cirque: Starting location for mountain glaciers

 Cirque stairway: a sequence of cirques
 U-shaped valley: U-shaped valleys are created by mountain glaciers. When filled with ocean
water so as to create an inlet, these valleys are called fjords.
 Arête: spiky high land between two glaciers, if the glacial action erodes through,
a spillway (or col) forms.

Depositional landforms[edit]

Depositional landforms
Later, when the glaciers retreated leaving behind their freight of crushed rock and sand (glacial drift),
they created characteristicdepositional landforms. Examples include glacial moraines, eskers,
and kames. Drumlins and ribbed moraines are also landforms left behind by retreating glaciers. The
stone walls of New England contain many glacial erratics, rocks that were dragged by a glacier
many miles from their bedrock origin.

 Esker: Built up bed of a subglacial stream.

 Kame: Irregularly shaped mound.
 Moraine: Feature can be terminal (at the end of a glacier), lateral (along the sides of a
glacier), or medial (formed by the emerger of lateral moraines from contributary glaciers).
 Outwash fan: Braided stream flowing from the front end of a glacier.
See also: Ice Age Trail and Giant current ripples

Glacial lakes and ponds[edit]

Lakes and ponds may also be caused by glacial movement. Kettle lakes form when a retreating
glacier leaves behind an underground or surface chunk of ice that later melts to form a depression
containing water. Moraine-dammed lakes occur when glacial debris dam a stream (or snow
runoff). Jackson Lake and Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park are examples of moraine-
dammed lakes, though Jackson Lake is enhanced by a man-made dam.

 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 terminal moraines left by an advancing or retreating glacier.
 Glacial Lake: A lake that formed between the front of a glacier and the last terminal moraine.
See also: Glacier National Park (U.S.) and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve

Ice Features[edit]
Apart from the landforms left behind by glaciers, glaciers themselves may be striking features of the
terrain, particularly in the polar regions of the earth. Notable examples includevalley glaciers where
glacial flow is restricted by the valley walls, crevasses in the upper section of glacial ice, and icefalls
—the ice equivalent of waterfalls.
Introduction
Glaciers have played an important role in
the shaping of landscapes in the middle
and high latitudes and in alpine
environments. Their ability
toerode soil and rock, transport sedimen
t, and deposit sediment is extraordinary.
During the last glacial period more than
50 million square kilometers of land
surface were geomorphically influenced by
the presence of glaciers.
 
Glacial Erosion
Two major erosional processes occur at
the base of a glacier. First, at the base of a
glacier, large amounts of
loose rock and sediment are incorporated
into the moving glacial ice by partial
melting and refreezing. The second
process of erosion involves
the abrasive action of the held rock and
sediment held by the ice on the surface
underneath the glacier. This abrasive
process is known as scouring. Scouring
creates a variety of features. The most
conspicuous feature of scouring
is striations (Figure 10af-1). Striations
appear as scratches of various size on rock
surfaces. In some cases, abrasion can
polish the surface of some rock types
smooth. This geomorphic feature is known
as glacial polish. The abrasive action of
scouring also produces a fine clay-
sized sediment that is often transported
away from the glacier by meltwater. As a
result of this process, glacial meltwater can
have a light, cloudy appearance, and is
called glacial milk.
 Figure 10af-1: Glacial
striations, Lac Blanchet,
Canada. (Source: Natural
Resources Canada - Terrain
Sciences Division - Canadian
Landscapes).
 
The second major erosional process that
occurs at the base of a glacier is plucking.
Plucking is the process of particle
detachment by moving glacial ice. In this
process, basal ice freezes in rock surface
cracks. As the main body of the glacial ice
moves material around the ice in the
cracks is pulled and plucked out. The
intensity of the plucking process is greatest
on the lee-side of rock mounds. When
combined with glacial abrasion, the action
of plucking on rock mounds produces a
unique asymmetrical feature known
as roche moutonnee. Roche moutonnee
are smooth on the side of ice advancement
and steep and jagged on the opposite side.
Glaciers generally flow over the land
surface along a path of least resistance.
The flow of an alpine glacier into a
valley, causes the glacier to rapidly
advance producing a swollen tongue of ice
at the glacier's snout, known as a lobe. As
the lobe moves down the valley it often
encounters the lobes of other glaciers from
connecting valleys. The glacier grows in
size with addition of the flow of connected
sub-valleys. The
following image illustrates one of these
networks of connected alpine glaciers
(Figure 10af-2).

Figure 10af-2: Merging alpine glaciers

viewed from above (Source: NASA).

A number of distinct erosional features
can be observed in mountainous regions
that have experienced the effects of
glaciation. Much of this erosion is exerted
on the bottoms and sides of alpine valleys
that guide the flow of glaciers. This
erosion causes the bottom and the sides of
any glaciated valley to become both wider
and deeper over time. Glacial erosion also
results in a change in the valley's cross-
sectional shape. Glacial valleys tend to
have a pronounced U-shape that contrasts
sharply with V-shape valleys created by
stream erosion. Small adjoining feeder
valleys entering a large valley in a
glaciated mountainous region tend to have
their floors elevated some distance above
the level of the main valley's floor.
Geomorphologist call this landform
a hanging valley. Hanging valleys develop
because of two reasons: 1) larger, more
massive glaciers create greater erosion and
subsequently a deeper valley, and 2) some
valleys have seen more glacier ice pass
through them which also results in more
erosion and a deeper valley. Many hanging
valleys are also the sites of sensational
waterfalls.
Some of the other features associated with
glacier erosion in alpine regions
are cirques, horns, and arêtes (Figure
10af-3). Cirques are the bowl shaped
depressions found at the head of glacial
valleys. For most alpine glaciers, cirques
are the areas in the alpine valleys where
snow first accumulated and was modified
into glacial ice. The glaciers that occupy
cirques are called cirque
glaciers. Horns are pyramidal peaks that
form when several cirques chisel a
mountain from three or more sides. The
most famous horn is the Matterhorn found
in the Swiss Alps. Arêtes are the narrow
serrated ridges found in glaciated alpine
areas. Arêtes form when two opposing
cirques back erode a mountain ridge.

Figure 10af-3: Features
associated with alpine
glaciation.
 
Talus and other foot-slope deposits are
also common in a glaciated valley.
Because of the enhancement of freeze-
thaw processes bedrock in alpine areas
is weathered by the growth of ice crystals.
This type of weathering shatters the
bedrock into sharp angular fragments that
accumulate at the bottom of rock slopes as
talus. Much of the debris carried by an
alpine glacier comes from valley sides
where talus accumulates.
The erosional landforms produced
by continental glaciers are usually less
obvious than those created by alpine
glaciers. Like alpine glaciers, the
movement of continental glaciers followed
topographic trends found in the landscape.
Continental ice sheets were very thick,
between 1000 to 3000 meters. The mass of
these glaciers covered all but the highest
features and had extremely strong erosive
power. Much of the Canadian
Shield shows the effects of abrasion and
gouging which created glacial
polish and striations on bedrock surfaces.
In some areas, continental ice sheets
produced huge U-shaped valleys from
previously V-shaped stream valleys. In
other areas, erosion by the continental ice
sheets scooped out large shallow basins,
many of which exist today as lakes. Many
of the lakes on the Canadian Shield,
including those of the Great Lakes, were
created by glacial erosion.
 
Glacial Deposition
A large part of the surface of a glacier is
covered with a coating of sediment and
rock debris. This is especially prevalent
near the snout of the glacier, where most
of the ice has been lost to ablation and
sediment is left behind. Sediment is added
to glacial ice in two ways. Large quantities
of sediment are picked up
by abrasion and plucking at the base of
the ice. In alpine areas, sediment is added
to the surface of the glacier from the valley
walls through various types of mass
movement. Much of the debris that is
added to the ice of the glacier is eventually
delivered to the snout because of the
continual forward flow of glacial ice. From
the snout this material can be placed
directly from the ice or it can be deposited
through the action of flowing meltwater.
Geomorphologists call the later
deposits glaciofluvial deposits. The
technical term used to describe material
deposited by the ice is
called till or moraine. All glacial deposits
are by and large known as glacial drift.
Till is a heterogeneous combination of
unstratified sediments ranging in size from
large boulders to minute particles of clay.
When till is deposited along the edge of a
glacier it tends to form irregular hills and
mounds known as moraines. A terminal
moraine is a deposit that mark, the farthest
advance of a glacier. Moraine deposits
created during halts in the retreat of the
glacier are called recessional moraines.
The debris that falls from valley side
slopes can be concentrated in a narrow belt
and cause a deposit known as a lateral
moraine (Figure 10af-4). When two
glaciers flow together, two lateral
moraines can merge to form an interior
belt of debris, called a medial
moraine (Figure 10af-5). Atill plain is a
large, relatively flat plain of till that forms
when a sheet of ice becomes detached
from the main body of the glacier and
melts in place. Sometimes the sediments in
a till plain can contain large boulders. If
these boulders are transported a great
distance from their place of origin, they are
called erratics (Figure 10af-6).

Figure 10af-4: Lateral
moraines along the sides of the
Salmon Glacier, British
Columbia, Canada (Photo
©Trudy Kavanagh).
 

Figure 10af-5: Medial moraine

down the center of the Salmon
Glacier, British Columbia,
Canada (Photo ©Trudy
Kavanagh).
 
Figure 10af-6: Glacial erratic
near Point Lake, Northwest
Territories. Glacial erratics are
large pieces of rock that have
been transported away from
their source areas by moving
glacial ice sheets.
(Source:Natural Resources
Canada - Terrain Sciences
Division - Canadian
Landscapes).
  
Glaciofluvial deposits are generally quite
stratified and less sorted in terms of
particle size. Outwash deposits are formed
when sand is eroded, transported, and
deposited by meltwater streams from the
glacier's snout and nearby till deposits to
areas in front of the glacier. Outwash
plaindevelops when there are a great
number of meltwater streams depositing
material ahead of the glacier (Figure 10af-
7).
 Figure 10af-7: Glacier snout
and outwash plain, Bylot Island,
Canada. (Source: Natural
Resources Canada - Terrain
Sciences Division - Canadian
Landscapes).
 
Glaciofluvial deposits are also associated
with the melting of stagnant ice at the front
of the glacier. Where sediment rich water
flows into a crevasse or depression in the
ice, a conical-shaped pile of sand and
gravel, known as a kame, can form
(Figure 10af-8). Many kames are often
found on or at the edge of moraines.
Figure 10af-8: Kame, La Bluff,
Ile de la Grande Entree,
Canada. This kame was
deposited during the main stage
of the last glaciation when the
Laurentide ice sheet filled the
Gulf of St. lawrence.
(Source: Natural Resources
Canada - Terrain Sciences
Division - Canadian
Landscapes).
  
Glaciers can also contain sinuous flows of
meltwater that occur in ice tunnels at the
base of the ice. The beds of these sub-
surface glacial streams are composed of
layers of sand and gravel. When the ice
melts from around the meltwater tunnels,
the beds of sand and gravel are deposited
on the Earth's surface as long twisting
ridges known as eskers (Figure 10af-9).

Figure 10af-9: Esker near Lac

 du Sauvage, Northwest
Territories. The slightly curving
thin ridge in the centers of this
photo is the esker. The flat
region in the foreground to the
left of the esker was formed by
glacial outwash.
(Source: Natural Resources
Canada - Terrain Sciences
Division - Canadian
Landscapes).
 
Another feature of continental glaciation
are hill shaped deposits of till known
as drumlins (Figure 10af-10). Drumlins
often occur in large numbers across areas
of New York and Wisconsin, USA and
Ontario, Canada. The streamline shape of
these glacial features resembles a extended
teaspoon laying bowl down. The gently
sloping tapered end of the drumlin points
in the general direction the glacier
traveled. Drumlins also come in a variety
of dimensions. Lengths can range from
100 to 5000 meters and heights can
sometimes exceed 200 meters. A couple
theories exist to explain their formation.
The most excepted theory suggests they
form when saturated ground sediments
oozes up into hollows at the base of an
advancing glacier. The sediment is then
stretched out and molded into a streamline
form as the ice moves forward.
Figure 10af-10: Drumlin field
in northwestern Manitoba.
These features are made of till
and are formed at the base of a
glacial ice sheet. The long axis
of this feature aligns with the
direction of glacial movement.
(Source: Natural Resources
Canada - Terrain Sciences
Division - Canadian
Landscapes).
  
When glaciers are rapidly retreating,
numerous blocks of ice can become
detached from the main body of the
glacier. If glacial drift is then placed
around the ice, a depression on the surface
called a kettle hole can be created when
the ice melts . Kettle holes are commonly
found on moraine and outwash plain
deposits. Large kettle holes that reach
below the water table can form into lakes.
The photograph below shows some kettle
lakes in glaciofluvial outwash complex
located in the Northwestern District of
Mackenzie, Northwest Territories (Figure
10af-10). Some kettle holes develop into
wetlands such as bogs, swamps, and
marshes.
 Figure 10af-11: Kettle Lakes,
Northwest Territory, Canada.
(Source: Natural Resources
Canada - Terrain Sciences
Division - Canadian
Landscapes).
Introduction

Glaciers have played an important role in the shaping of landscapes in the middle and
high latitudes and in alpine environments. Their ability
toerode soil and rock, transport sediment, and deposit sediment is extraordinary.
During the last glacial period more than 50 million square kilometers of land surface
were geomorphically influenced by the presence of glaciers.

Glacial Erosion
Two major erosional processes occur at the base of a glacier. First, at the base of a
glacier, large amounts of loose rock and sediment are incorporated into the moving
glacial ice by partial melting and refreezing. The second process of erosion involves
the abrasive action of the held rock and sediment held by the ice on the surface
underneath the glacier. This abrasive process is known as scouring. Scouring creates
a variety of features. The most conspicuous feature of scouring is striations (Figure
10af-1). Striations appear as scratches of various size on rock surfaces. In some cases,
abrasion can polish the surface of some rock types smooth. This geomorphic feature is
known as glacial polish. The abrasive action of scouring also produces a fine clay-
sized sediment that is often transported away from the glacier by meltwater. As a
result of this process, glacial meltwater can have a light, cloudy appearance, and is
called glacial milk.

Figure 10af-1: Glacial striations, Lac Blanchet, Canada.

(Source: Natural Resources Canada - Terrain Sciences
Division - Canadian Landscapes).

The second major erosional process that occurs at the base of a glacier is plucking.

Plucking is the process of particle detachment by moving glacial ice. In this process,
basal ice freezes in rock surface cracks. As the main body of the glacial ice moves
material around the ice in the cracks is pulled and plucked out. The intensity of the
plucking process is greatest on the lee-side of rock mounds. When combined with
glacial abrasion, the action of plucking on rock mounds produces a unique
asymmetrical feature known as roche moutonnee. Roche moutonnee are smooth on
the side of ice advancement and steep and jagged on the opposite side.

Glaciers generally flow over the land surface along a path of least resistance. The
flow of an alpine glacier into a valley, causes the glacier to rapidly advance
producing a swollen tongue of ice at the glacier's snout, known as a lobe. As the lobe
moves down the valley it often encounters the lobes of other glaciers from connecting
valleys. The glacier grows in size with addition of the flow of connected sub-valleys.
The following image illustrates one of these networks of connected alpine glaciers
(Figure 10af-2).

Figure 10af-2: Merging alpine glaciers viewed from above (Source: NASA).

A number of distinct erosional features can be observed in mountainous regions that

have experienced the effects of glaciation. Much of this erosion is exerted on the
bottoms and sides of alpine valleys that guide the flow of glaciers. This erosion causes
the bottom and the sides of any glaciated valley to become both wider and deeper over
time. Glacial erosion also results in a change in the valley's cross-sectional shape.
Glacial valleys tend to have a pronounced U-shape that contrasts sharply with V-
shape valleys created by stream erosion. Small adjoining feeder valleys entering a
large valley in a glaciated mountainous region tend to have their floors elevated some
distance above the level of the main valley's floor. Geomorphologist call this landform
a hanging valley. Hanging valleys develop because of two reasons: 1) larger, more
massive glaciers create greater erosion and subsequently a deeper valley, and 2) some
valleys have seen more glacier ice pass through them which also results in more
erosion and a deeper valley. Many hanging valleys are also the sites of sensational
waterfalls.
Some of the other features associated with glacier erosion in alpine regions
are cirques, horns, and arêtes (Figure 10af-3). Cirques are the bowl shaped
depressions found at the head of glacial valleys. For most alpine glaciers, cirques are
the areas in the alpine valleys where snow first accumulated and was modified into
glacial ice. The glaciers that occupy cirques are called cirque glaciers. Horns are
pyramidal peaks that form when several cirques chisel a mountain from three or more
sides. The most famous horn is the Matterhorn found in the Swiss Alps. Arêtes are
the narrow serrated ridges found in glaciated alpine areas. Arêtes form when two
opposing cirques back erode a mountain ridge.

Figure 10af-3: Features associated with alpine glaciation.

Talus and other foot-slope deposits are also common in a glaciated valley. Because of

the enhancement of freeze-thaw processes bedrock in alpine areas is weathered by
the growth of ice crystals. This type of weathering shatters the bedrock into sharp
angular fragments that accumulate at the bottom of rock slopes as talus. Much of the
debris carried by an alpine glacier comes from valley sides where talus accumulates.

The erosional landforms produced by continental glaciers are usually less obvious

than those created by alpine glaciers. Like alpine glaciers, the movement of
continental glaciers followed topographic trends found in the landscape. Continental
ice sheets were very thick, between 1000 to 3000 meters. The mass of these glaciers
covered all but the highest features and had extremely strong erosive power. Much of
the Canadian Shield shows the effects of abrasion and gouging which created glacial
polish and striations on bedrock surfaces. In some areas, continental ice sheets
produced huge U-shaped valleys from previously V-shaped stream valleys. In other
areas, erosion by the continental ice sheets scooped out large shallow basins, many of
which exist today as lakes. Many of the lakes on the Canadian Shield, including those
of the Great Lakes, were created by glacial erosion.

Glacial Deposition

A large part of the surface of a glacier is covered with a coating of sediment and rock
debris. This is especially prevalent near the snout of the glacier, where most of the ice
has been lost to ablation and sediment is left behind. Sediment is added to glacial ice
in two ways. Large quantities of sediment are picked up by abrasion and plucking at
the base of the ice. In alpine areas, sediment is added to the surface of the glacier from
the valley walls through various types of mass movement. Much of the debris that is
added to the ice of the glacier is eventually delivered to the snout because of the
continual forward flow of glacial ice. From the snout this material can be placed
directly from the ice or it can be deposited through the action of flowing meltwater.
Geomorphologists call the later deposits glaciofluvial deposits. The technical term
used to describe material deposited by the ice is called till or moraine. All glacial
deposits are by and large known as glacial drift.

Till is a heterogeneous combination of unstratified sediments ranging in size from

large boulders to minute particles of clay. When till is deposited along the edge of a
glacier it tends to form irregular hills and mounds known as moraines. A terminal
moraine is a deposit that mark, the farthest advance of a glacier. Moraine deposits
created during halts in the retreat of the glacier are called recessional moraines. The
debris that falls from valley side slopes can be concentrated in a narrow belt and cause
a deposit known as a lateral moraine (Figure 10af-4). When two glaciers flow
together, two lateral moraines can merge to form an interior belt of debris, called
a medial moraine (Figure 10af-5). Atill plain is a large, relatively flat plain of till
that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of the glacier
and melts in place. Sometimes the sediments in a till plain can contain large boulders.
If these boulders are transported a great distance from their place of origin, they are
called erratics (Figure 10af-6).
Figure 10af-4: Lateral moraines along the sides of the Salmon
Glacier, British Columbia, Canada (Photo ©Trudy Kavanagh).

 
Figure 10af-5: Medial moraine down the center of the Salmon
Glacier, British Columbia, Canada (Photo ©Trudy Kavanagh).

 
 Figure 10af-6: Glacial erratic near Point Lake, Northwest
Territories. Glacial erratics are large pieces of rock that have
been transported away from their source areas by moving
glacial ice sheets. (Source:Natural Resources Canada -
Terrain Sciences Division - Canadian Landscapes).

Glaciofluvial deposits are generally quite stratified and less sorted in terms of particle
size. Outwash deposits are formed when sand is eroded, transported, and deposited
by meltwater streams from the glacier's snout and nearby till deposits to areas in front
of the glacier. Outwash plaindevelops when there are a great number of meltwater
streams depositing material ahead of the glacier (Figure 10af-7).
 Figure 10af-7: Glacier snout and outwash plain, Bylot Island,
Canada. (Source: Natural Resources Canada - Terrain
Sciences Division - Canadian Landscapes).

Glaciofluvial deposits are also associated with the melting of stagnant ice at the front
of the glacier. Where sediment rich water flows into a crevasse or depression in the
ice, a conical-shaped pile of sand and gravel, known as a kame, can form (Figure
10af-8). Many kames are often found on or at the edge of moraines.
 Figure 10af-8: Kame, La Bluff, Ile de la Grande Entree,
Canada. This kame was deposited during the main stage of the
last glaciation when the Laurentide ice sheet filled the Gulf of
St. lawrence. (Source: Natural Resources Canada - Terrain
Sciences Division - Canadian Landscapes).

Glaciers can also contain sinuous flows of meltwater that occur in ice tunnels at the
base of the ice. The beds of these sub-surface glacial streams are composed of layers
of sand and gravel. When the ice melts from around the meltwater tunnels, the beds
of sand and gravel are deposited on the Earth's surface as long twisting ridges known
as eskers (Figure 10af-9).
 Figure 10af-9: Esker near Lac du Sauvage, Northwest
Territories. The slightly curving thin ridge in the centers of this
photo is the esker. The flat region in the foreground to the left of
the esker was formed by glacial outwash. (Source: Natural
Resources Canada - Terrain Sciences Division - Canadian
Landscapes).

Another feature of continental glaciation are hill shaped deposits of till known
as drumlins (Figure 10af-10). Drumlins often occur in large numbers across areas of
New York and Wisconsin, USA and Ontario, Canada. The streamline shape of these
glacial features resembles a extended teaspoon laying bowl down. The gently sloping
tapered end of the drumlin points in the general direction the glacier traveled.
Drumlins also come in a variety of dimensions. Lengths can range from 100 to 5000
meters and heights can sometimes exceed 200 meters. A couple theories exist to
explain their formation. The most excepted theory suggests they form when saturated
ground sediments oozes up into hollows at the base of an advancing glacier. The
sediment is then stretched out and molded into a streamline form as the ice moves
forward.
 Figure 10af-10: Drumlin field in northwestern Manitoba. These
features are made of till and are formed at the base of a glacial
ice sheet. The long axis of this feature aligns with the direction
of glacial movement. (Source: Natural Resources Canada -
Terrain Sciences Division - Canadian Landscapes).

When glaciers are rapidly retreating, numerous blocks of ice can become detached
from the main body of the glacier. If glacial drift is then placed around the ice, a
depression on the surface called a kettle hole can be created when the ice melts .
Kettle holes are commonly found on moraine and outwash plain deposits. Large kettle
holes that reach below the water table can form into lakes. The photograph below
shows some kettle lakes in glaciofluvial outwash complex located in the Northwestern
District of Mackenzie, Northwest Territories (Figure 10af-10). Some kettle holes
develop into wetlands such as bogs, swamps, and marshes.
Figure 10af-11: Kettle Lakes, Northwest Territory, Canada.
(Source: Natural Resources Canada - Terrain Sciences
Division - Canadian Landscapes).