What landforms do continental glaciers?

What landforms do continental glaciers?

Glacier Landforms

• U-Shaped Valleys, Fjords, and Hanging Valleys. Glaciers carve a set of distinctive, steep-walled, flat-bottomed valleys.
• Cirques.
• Nunataks, Arêtes, and Horns.
• Lateral and Medial Moraines.
• Terminal and Recessional Moraines.
• Glacial Till and Glacial Flour.
• Glacial Erratics.
• Glacial Striations.

Which landform is most commonly associated with continental glaciation?

Flutes (see above) are a common feature found in areas covered by ground moraine. Another depositional landform associated with continental glaciation is the drumlin, a streamlined, elongate mound of sediment. Such structures often occur in groups of tens or hundreds, which are called drumlin fields.

What landform features have resulted from the melting back of glaciers?

As the glaciers expand, due to their accumulating weight of snow and ice they crush and 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.

What type of glacial landforms are visible from Glacier Point?

Some of the important features visible in Figure 16.22 are arêtes: sharp ridges between U-shaped glacial valleys; cols: low points along arêtes that constitute passes between glacial valleys; horns: steep peaks that have been glacially and freeze-thaw eroded on three or more sides; cirques: bowl-shaped basins that form …

What is an example of a continental glacier?

Continental glaciers are continuous masses of ice that are much larger than alpine glaciers. Big continental glaciers are called ice sheets. Greenland and Antarctica are almost entirely covered with ice sheets that are up to 3500 m (11 500 ft) thick.

What are the 3 types of glaciers?

Glaciers are classifiable in three main groups: (1) glaciers that extend in continuous sheets, moving outward in all directions, are called ice sheets if they are the size of Antarctica or Greenland and ice caps if they are smaller; (2) glaciers confined within a path that directs the ice movement are called mountain …

What landforms are created by glacial erosion and deposition?

Glaciers cause erosion by plucking and abrasion. Valley glaciers form several unique features through erosion, including cirques, arêtes, and horns. Glaciers deposit their sediment when they melt. Landforms deposited by glaciers include drumlins, kettle lakes, and eskers.

What are 2 types of glaciers that help create landforms on Earth?

Glaciers fall into two groups: alpine glaciers and ice sheets. Alpine glaciers form on mountainsides and move downward through valleys. Sometimes, alpine glaciers create or deepen valleys by pushing dirt, soil, and other materials out of their way.

What is an example of glacial erosion?

Glacial lakes are examples of ice erosion. They occur when a glacier carves its way into a place and then melts over time, filling up the space that it carved out with water. Yosemite Valley, an area in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, was carved out by ice erosion.

What is another name for a continental glacier?

Continental glaciers are continuous masses of ice that are much larger than alpine glaciers. Small continental glaciers are called ice fields. Big continental glaciers are called ice sheets. Greenland and Antarctica are almost entirely covered with ice sheets that are up to 3500 m (11 500 ft) thick.

What are the 4 types of glaciers?

What types of glaciers are there?

• Mountain glaciers. These glaciers develop in high mountainous regions, often flowing out of icefields that span several peaks or even a mountain range.
• Valley glaciers.
• Tidewater glaciers.
• Piedmont glaciers.
• Hanging glaciers.
• Cirque glaciers.
• Ice aprons.
• Rock glaciers.

What is the largest type of glacier?

continental ice sheet
Ice Sheets The largest type of glacier is a continental ice sheet. The definition of an ice sheet is a glacier that covers an area of over 50,000km2. These glaciers are so thick they completely conceal topographical features like mountains and valleys.