Showing posts with label Where are Mountain and Glacial Landforms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Where are Mountain and Glacial Landforms. Show all posts

Friday, October 6, 2017

Mountain and Glacial Landforms

Mountain and glacial landforms include the following:

• areˆte—a thin, almost knifelike, ridge of rock that is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys.
• cirque—an amphitheaterlike valley or valley head, formed at the head of a glacier by erosion.
• crevasse—a huge crack formed by two glaciers colliding.
• dirt cone—a feature of a glacier in which dirt that has fallen into a hollow in the ice forms a coating that insulates the ice below.
• drumlin—an elongated, whale-shaped hill formed by glacial action.
• esker—a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel.
• glacier—a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure.
• glacier cave—a cave formed within the ice of a glacier.
• glacier foreland—region between the current leading edge of the glacier and the moraines of latest maximum.
• hill—a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain, in a limited area.
• kame—an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel, and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the glacier.
• kame delta—a glacial landform made by a stream flowing through glacial ice and depositing material upon entering a lake or pond at the end or terminus of the glacier.
• kettle—a shallow, sediment-filled body of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters.
• monadnock—an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surround plain.
• moraine—any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris (soil and rock) that can occur in the currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past ice age.
• moulin—a narrow, tubular chute, hole, or crevasse through which water enters a glacier from the surface.
• nunatak—an exposed, often rocky element of a ridge, mountain, or peak not covered with ice or snow within an ice field or glacier.
• outwash fan—a fan-shaped body of sediments deposited by braided streams from a melting glacier.
• pingo—a mound of earth-covered ice found in the Arctic and subarctic that can reach up to 70 meters (230 feet) in height and up to 600 meters (2,000 feet) in diameter.
• pyramidal peak (glacial horn)—a mountaintop that has been modified by the action of ice during glaciation and frost weathering.
• rift valley—linear-shaped lowland between highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault.
• sandur—a glacial outwash plain formed of sediments deposited by meltwater at the terminus of a glacier.
• side valley—refers to a valley whose brook or river is confluent to a greater one.
• stream terrace—a relict feature from periods when a stream was flowing at a higher elevation and has downcut to a lower elevation.
• tunnel valley—a deep but narrow valley with a ‘U’-shaped cross-section and frequently a ‘U’-shaped plain that is usually found filled with glacial till.
• valley—a depression with predominant extent in one direction.