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Features of a glacial landscape

The diagram below shows some features of a glacial landscape.

Features of the glacial landscape
  1. A pyramidal peak has steep, triangular faces divided by sharp ridges or arĂȘtes.
  2. An arĂȘte is a sharp ridge between corries.
  3. A corrie is an armchair-shaped hollow with steep back and sides.
  4. A corrie loch, or tarn, is a body of water which has gathered in the hollow in the corrie floor.
  5. An is a fan-shaped pile of rock remains (alluvium) washed down by a stream and piled up where a steep valley side meets the valley floor.
  6. A ribbon lake is a long narrow lake in a part of the valley cut deeper by the glacier.
  7. A truncated spur exists because a ridge has been cut off sharply by the ice that flowed down the main valley.
  8. A misfit stream is so-called because it is far too small to have cut the valley.
  9. A is called this because the valley floor is much higher than the floor of the main valley.
  10. A U-shaped valley has steep sides and a nearly flat floor. (The other side of the valley is missing in this cut-away diagram).

Sample questions

The sample questions that follow show ways of using diagrams to explain how the most common features were formed.

Question

How is a corrie formed?

Question

How is a pyramidal peak (horn) formed?

Question

How is a U-shaped valley formed?