Glacial Features of Erosion and Deposition

Match the explanation of glacial features of erosion and deposition to their name. Some will appear more obvious than others so start with them first. A list of names appears overleaf.

Moraine consists of material known as boulder clay and till, which has been eroded and transported and deposited by the glacier. This material may be dumped at the end or snout of the glacier and is called terminal moraine. Those formed by material dumped at the sides or in the middle where two glaciers came together are called lateral and medial moraines respectively.
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Often, corries developed on adjacent sides of a mountain and when they were fully formed they were separated by a knife-shaped ridge termed an arête.
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The sides of the U-shaped valley are usually high and steep. During the Ice Age, tributary valleys often had smaller glaciers. The glacier in the main valley cut off the bottom slope of the tributary valley, leaving it high above the main valley. Tributaries of the main valley will therefore plunge from the slopes of the main valley into the bottom of the valley. These smaller valleys are called hanging valleys.
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These are gently sloping plains consisting of sands and gravel. These have been deposited by melt water streams flowing out from the ice sheet and carrying material collected by the glacier.
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These features occur where the glacier met an outcrop of rock that was harder than the rock of the surrounding area. The sides of the harder rock (crag) were worn away by the glacier but the land behind the crag was protected and formed a long, gently sloping ridge called the tail.
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These are large boulders that have been lifted, carried and deposited by the glaciers some distance away in a different part of the country. The rock type of the erratic is usually different from the rocks that are common to the area in which it is deposited.
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Oval-shaped mounds that can be up to 100 metres high and have a ‘basket of eggs’ look to them. The material in them was deposited due to friction between the ice and the underlying rock causing the glacier to drop its load.
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A spur is the bottom part of a slope that juts out into the main valley. As the ice cut through the original valley, the original spurs were removed by the ice, and the feature remaining, once the ice melts, is called a truncated spur.
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Outcrops of harder rocks that have been smoothed on the side facing the ice to give a gentle slope and plucked on the other side to produce a more jagged, steeper slope.
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As a glacier moved downhill through a valley, the shape of the valley was transformed. Material called boulder clay was deposited on the floor of the valley. As the ice melted and retreated, the valley was left with very steep sides and a wide flat floor. A river or stream may have flowed through the valley due to melt water from the glacier. This replaced the original stream or river and is termed a misfit stream. The material that was pushed in front of the glacier, and left as the glacier melted, is called terminal moraine. If the valley dammed by the moraine flooded a lake was created, which may have twisted and turned and therefore is termed a ribbon lake.
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Elongated ridges of coarse, stratified, fluvioglacial sands and gravels and are thought to have been formed by melt water tunnels within the lower parts of the glacier that deposited the material.
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Steep-sided hollows in the sides of mountains where snow has accumulated and gradually compacted into ice. The rotational movement of ice in the hollow causes considerable erosion, both on the floor and on the sides of the depression. The erosion on the floor is caused by abrasion, the floor becomes concave in shape and the edge takes on a ridge-shaped appearance. At the sides, plucking of rocks takes place as the ice moves forward and the back wall of the depression becomes very steep. As the corrie fills up with ice, eventually it cannot contain any more and some of it moves down the slope to a lower level. This is the beginning of a glacier. Occasionally, as the ice melts, melt water fills the corrie and forms a corrie lake, called a corrie loch in Scotland and tarn in England.
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Irregular-shaped mounds of material consisting of sands and gravel again laid by glacial streams. Sometimes they formed terraces on the side of the valley, where the streams ran along the sides of the ice trapped against it by the valley walls.
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If corries develop on all sides of a mountain, the arêtes will form a jagged peak at the top. This feature is called a pyramidal peak. These are further sharpened by frost action.
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Features of Erosion
U-shaped valleys / Hanging valleys / Truncated spurs
Arêtes / Pyramidal peaks / Corries
Crag and tail / Roches mountonnées
Features of Deposition
Moraines / Erratics / Outwash plains
Eskers / Drumlins / Kames