Glaciers+Glossary

__**Glaciers Glossary **__  Here is a glossary defining the glacial features and key words. Just in case you had trouble knowing what they mean. :)  Click here to go back to our wiki

Glacier - A large area of snow and ice built up over thousands of years. Crevasse - A crack that is often deep, in a glacier. It is caused when the glacier moves on uneven ground.

Cirque - The little starting point of a glacier, where ice, snow and the "freeze- thaw" cycle create hollows that sort of look like armchairs in the side of a mountain.

Arête - A glacier feature produced when two cirques on a mountain __erode__ towards each other and create a ridge, often sharp, between them. (erode- to eat into or away; destroy by slowly taking it away).

Horn - The sharp pyramid shape formed on a mountain when three or more arêtes are on the peak of the mountain. U-shaped valley - A valley with steep sides. It is caused by __glacial erosion__. (Glacial erosion- The movement of soil or rock from one place to another by the action of moving ice from a glacier) V-shaped valley - A valley whose shape resembles the shape of a V. (V-shaped valleys are formed by water eroding away the rocks, mud, and stone on a mountain side, which creates a funnel like valley.)

Hanging valley - Where a small glacier meets a large glacier, and the valley floor of the large glacier is below the bottom of the small glacier.



Fiord - A deep, long valley carved by a glacier that has become flooded with water from the sea.

Moraine - A large ridge of gravel, sand, and boulders that was pushed aside by a glacier or dragged to the end of a glacier.



Esker - A long mound of sand and gravel marking the path of melted water streams that passed through and under a glacier.



Striation - A groove or scratch on the surface of a rock. It is caused when boulders and gravel at the bottom of a glacier are dragged along the rocks surface.



Erratic - A large boulder that was passed on by glaciers and then left behind on the land when the glaciers disappeared.

Iceberg - A hunk of ice (vary in sizes) that has broken off a glacier when the glacier has reached the ocean.



Marissa Landolt and Kristin Blundell