Ridges, mounds and hummocks formed at the margin of glaciers are generally termed moraines. The study of moraines is particularly useful as it can shed light on the physical processes occurring at both active and former ice margins1,2 and because moraines are markers of former glacier extent, so can be used to track glacier change […]
Moraines are distinct ridges or mounds of debris that are laid down directly by a glacier or pushed up by it1. The term moraine is used to describe a wide variety of landforms created by the dumping, pushing, and squeezing of loose rock material, as well as the melting of glacial ice. In terms of
Glacial cirques, known locally as corries or coires (Scotland) and cwms (Wales), are large-scale erosional features common to many mountainous regions1,2. Classic cirques take the form of armchair-shaped hollows (see image below), with a steep headwall (which often culminates in a sharp ridge, or arête) and a gently-sloping or overdeepened valley floor (see diagram below).
Mountains as Water Towers of the World In many mountainous parts of the world with a seasonal rainfall, glaciers are a reliable water resource in the dry season. Mountains could be called the “Water Towers of the World”1, providing water from glacier melt and orographic rainfall to lowland regions. Glacierised drainage basins cover 26% of
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Roches moutonnées are asymmetric bedrock bumps or hills with a gently sloping and abraded upglacier (stoss) face and a quarried (or plucked) downglacier (lee) face that is typically blunter1,2. A good example of a roche moutonnée is shown in the image below. Roches moutonnées range in size from several metres to several hundreds of metres
What is subglacial erosion? Subglacial erosion refers to processes that act at a glacier or ice sheet bed that cause the Earth’s surface to be worn down, broken up, and transported by ice. These processes leave behind some of the classic signs of glacial activity, in the form of erosional landforms and landscapes. Subglacial erosion
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Further reading: Cirque landsystems of upland Britain Glaciated valley landsystem Videos on glacial erosion: This video shows a computer simulation of glacier erosion. You can watch the landscape evolve from a fluvial landscape into a glaciated landscape, and discuss the features that you can see evolving. This video shows the awesome glacier fjords in Norway.
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This section of the website includes many examples of landforms created underneath and around the margins of glaciers. These depositional landforms typically form in two domains: subglacial landforms and ice-marginal landforms. Subglacial landforms include: A continuum of lineated bedforms, ranging from small scale (flutes), through to intermediate scale (10s of metres; Drumlins), through to large
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Here at AntarcticGlaciers.org we have been busy making many updates to the website. We are particularly keen to update the website to bring it in to line with the reformed A-Level syllabus, and also to update and rewrite some of the older content, and improve the website as a resource to promote public understanding of
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Glacier accumulation | Glacier ablation | Equilibrium line altitude | Glaciers as a system | Further reading | References | Comments | Glacier accumulation A glacier is a pile of snow and ice. In cold regions (either towards the poles or at high altitudes), more snow falls (accumulates) than melts (ablates) in the summer season.
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