The landforms created by glacial erosion are:
- Corries
- Arêtes
- Pyramidal Peaks
- U Shaped Valleys or glacial troughs
- Truncated Spurs
- Hanging Valleys
Corrie
A Corrie is an armchair shaped depression with a steep back wall and a shallow rock lip
- Formed in high mountain areas where glaciers start
- Snow collects in a small hollow
- Over time it compacts and turns to ice
- As the ice starts to move then it plucks rocks from the back wall
- At the base of the bowl the ice scours the rock away through abrasion
- A rock lip is formed as the ice starts to move out of the hollow
U shaped Valleys & Truncated Spurs
- Glacial troughs or u shaped valleys are formed as a glacier moves through a river valley smoothing off the sides and removing the interlocking spurs
- This leaves a U shaped valley behind with steep sides and wide flat floor
- The worn down spurs are know as ‘truncated spurs’
Arêtes and Pyramidal Peaks
- An Arête is formed when two corries erode back to back
- As the corries are eroded backwards a narrow ridge is formed between them
- This narrow ‘knife edge’ like ridge is the Arête
- If three or more corries erode back to back then the result is a ‘Pyramidal Peak’
Hanging Valleys
- This is the name given to a former river tributary that would have originally joined the river at the same height as the main valley
- When a glacier fills a former river valley it is at a much higher level and therefore any tributary glaciers will join the main glacier also at a higher level
- Once the glacier has eroded it leaves the tributary valley hanging at the side of the main valley
- If a stream enters the hanging valley it plunges over the edge as a waterfall
