Geography

GLACIAL Landforms (Part 02)

Landforms

●​ Glacier Landforms
○​ Glacial landforms are shaped by the movement and melting of glaciers.
○​ Erosional Landforms:
■​ Plucking- Plucking is a glacial erosion process where a moving glacier
pulls pieces of bedrock away from the valley floor or sides and carries
them along with the ice. Depends on the weight of the glacier, the rate of
movement and the gravitational force.
■​ Nunotak- A nunatak is a mountain peak or rocky ridge that
protrudes above a glacier or ice sheet, remaining exposed while the
surrounding area is buried under ice.
■​ Fern- Firn is old, compacted snow that has survived one summer
melt season but hasn’t yet become glacier ice. It’s the intermediate
stage between fresh snow and glacial ice.
■​ Piedmont- A Piedmont Glacier is formed when one or more valley
glaciers flow down from mountainous terrain and then spread out onto
a lowland plain at the foot of the mountains, forming a broad, fan- or
lobe-shaped ice mass.
■​ U-Shaped valley- These are associated with steep slopes, and the
floor of the valley is flat. Carved by the erosive action of a glacier moving
down a pre-existing V-shaped river valley. Most geographers believe that
river valleys are eroded and modified by glacial actions and resulting in
the U-shaped valleys.
■​ Hanging Valley- Aka tributary valleys. A smaller glacier joins a main
glacier,
and after glacial retreat, the tributary valley is left "hanging" above
the main U-shaped valley. Characterised by waterfalls that drop from
the hanging valley into the main valley.
■​ Ribbon lake- Deep eroded valleys are filled with water, and a lake is
formed
in these deep troughs called ribbon lakes.
■​ Corrie/Cirque- A corrie is a bowl-shaped, amphitheatre-like hollow
found on the side of a mountain, formed by glacial erosion. It is the
birthplace of a glacier.
●​ Snow collects in a natural hollow high on a mountainside. Over
time, snow compacts into glacial ice. The glacier moves in a
circular, rotational manner due to gravity.
●​ Processes like plucking (ice pulls away rock) and abrasion
(ice grinds rock) deepen and widen the hollow.
■​ Tarn lake- The corrie may fill with meltwater and form a tarn (small
lake).
■​ Bergshrunds- A bergschrund is a deep crevasse or gap that forms
between the moving glacier ice and the stationary ice or firn (old,
compacted snow) at the head of a glacier, usually within a cirque or
corrie.
■​ Arete- An arete is a sharp, narrow ridge of rock that separates two
adjacent glacial valleys or two cirques (corries). It is formed by
glacial erosion from both sides.
■​ Col- A col is the lowest point on a ridge between two peaks. It
often forms a saddle-shaped depression where two opposing
cirques have eroded toward each other and nearly meet.
■​ Horns- They are single, pyramidical peaks formed when the
summit is eroded by cirque basins on all sides.
■​ Pyramidical peaks- A pyramidal peak or glacial horn is a sharp,
pointed mountain summit formed when three or more cirques (or
corries) erode a mountain from different sides.
■​ Rouche Moutanee- These types of landforms are formed where hard
and resistant rocks are in the path of glaciers. It appears like a ship is
lying, hence the topography is termed as shipback rocks.
■​ Fjords-
●​ Formation of Fjords
○​ A fjord is created where glaciers cut into a previously
created river valley (often V-shaped) or a
glacier-shaped valley (usually U-shaped). Many such
valleys were formed by ice age glaciers when the sea level
was significantly lower than today because large amounts
of water were tied up in the large ice masses on land.
Towards the end of each ice age, the climate warmed and
the glaciers melted back. When the glaciers melted at
the end of the last ice age, the sea level rose
considerably. This caused the valleys to fill with water
and create fjords.
●​ Factors that Contribute to Fjords' Picturesque Nature
○​ Stunning Scenery. Fjords are hidden gems that offer
visitors serene scenery and landscapes. For example, the
 UNESCO-listed Geirangerfjord of Norway is characterised
by towering cliffs carpeted with vegetation and features
several waterfalls.
○​ Reflection of light: The interplay of light and shadow
across the tranquil waters creates an enchanting
atmosphere.
○​ Biodiversity: The fjords are in a rich biodiverse region
with large flora and fauna, thus increasing their beauty.
For example, the Chilean fjords contain diverse benthic
ecosystems of corals and other invertebrates. Support
Wildlife: Fjords provide a habitat for thousands of nesting
seabirds and smaller marine mammals such as sea
otters, harbour seals, and sea lions.
○​ Adventurous activities: Howe Sound is North America's
Fjord, which offers a playground for sailing, fishing, diving,
camping, and a host of other recreational activities. Little
change in landscape: More specifically, the fjords are most
often remote and unspoiled, which means that the
landscape has changed very little since the very first
people settled in these areas.
●​ Fjords are places of amazing beauty and access to land and sea
for humans and animals. They are economically and socially
important for aquaculture, tourism, recreational fisheries,
transportation, and coastal development. They are also
experiencing many changes due to climate and human influence.
In order to maintain healthy and productive fjord ecosystems,
there needs to be a better understanding of changes to fjord
ecosystems at the global level and more interactions between
different relevant stakeholders
○​ Depositional Landforms:
■​ Boulder clay/glacial till- This is an unsorted glacial deposit
comprising a range of eroded materials such as boulders, sticky
clays & fine rock
 flour. It is spread out in sheets, not mounds, & forms gently undulating till
or drift plains with monotonous landform.
■​ Moraines: Moraines are made up of pieces of rock that are shattered
by
frost action, embedded in the glaciers & brought down the valley.
●​ Those that fall on the sides of the glacier form lateral moraines.
When two glaciers converge, their lateral moraines unite to
form a medial moraine.
●​ The rock fragments which are dragged along, beneath the frozen
ice, are dropped when the glacier melts & spread across the floor
of the valley as ground moraine.
●​ The glacier eventually melts on reaching the foot of the valley
& the pile of transported materials left behind at the snout is
terminal moraine or end moraine.
 ●​ The deposition of end moraines may be in several
succeeding waves, as the ice may melt back by stages, so
that a series of recessional moraines are formed.
■​ Outwashed plain- Made up of fluvio-glacial deposits washed out from
the terminal moraines by the streams of the stagnant ice mass. The
melt waters sort & redeposit the material, mainly consisting of
layers of sand and other fine sediments. Such plains with their sandy
soils are often used for specialised kinds of agriculture, such as the
potato.
■​ Erratics- Boulders of varying sizes are transported by ice & left
stranded in the regions of deposition when the ice melted,
called erratics because they are composed of materials entirely
different from those of the regions in which they have been
transported.
■​ Drumlins- Basket of egg tropography- Drumlins are oval-shaped hills,
largely composed of glacial drift, formed beneath a glacier or ice sheet
and aligned in the direction of ice flow. They are widespread in
formerly glaciated areas and are especially numerous in Canada,
Ireland, Sweden, and Finland. They are low hills up to 1.5 km long and
60 mm tall & appear steeper on the onset side & taper off at the leeward
side.
■​ Eskers- Eskers are the sinuous ridges composed of glacial material,
mainly sands & gravel deposited by meltwater currents in glacial
tunnels. Glacial tunnels mark the former sites of subglacial meltwater
streams. Their orientation is generally parallel to the direction of glacial
flow, and they sometimes exceed 100 kilometres in length.
■​ Kettles lake- Depressions are formed when deposition takes place in
the form of alternating ridges. Shallow, sediment-filled bodies of water
formed by retreating glaciers.

Coastal Landforms

●​ Erosional Forces
○​ Wave action- The continuous impact of waves against the coastline.
Transfers energy to the coast, causing erosion, transportation, and
deposition.
 ○​ Hydraulic action- The force of water itself crashing into rock. Air gets trapped
in cracks in the rock. As waves crash, the pressure compresses the air,
weakening the rock. Over time, the rock breaks apart.
○​ Aberration- The scraping or grinding of the coastline by materials like
sand, pebbles, and rocks carried by waves.
○​ Attrition- The breaking down of rocks and pebbles as they collide with
each other in the water.
●​ Erosional Landforms:
○​ Sea arches- Arched rock formations formed when two caves on opposite
sides of a headland meet.
○​ Sea caves- Hollow chambers or tunnels formed in cliffs due to the
hydraulic action and abrasion of waves.
○​ Sea stacks- Pillars of rock isolated from the coastline.
○​ Sea stumps- Short, worn-down remnants of sea stacks.
○​ Bay- A broad, inward-curving area of coastline.
○​ Wave-cut platforms- Flat, bench-like surfaces at the base of a retreating cliff.
○​ Chasm- A deep, narrow fissure or cleft in a coastal cliff.
●​ Depositional Landforms:
○​ Sand spit- A narrow ridge of sand extending from the coast into the sea.
○​ Bars- A ridge of sand or sediment formed across a bay.
○​ Lagoons- Shallow water bodies separated from the sea by a bar, sand
spit, or coral reef.
○​ Barriers- Long, narrow offshore islands parallel to the coast.

Karst Topography

●​ It is a region which is underlain by thick deposits of limestone marked by pointed

ridges, pillars, sinkholes, caves, etc.
●​ The term karst comes from the region of erstwhile Yugoslavia, the eastern coast of
the Adriatic Sea.
●​ Conditions essential for the development of the Karst region:
○​ The thickness of the limestone deposit should be more
 ○​ There should be a perineal source of water,
○​ Neither too high nor too low rainfall
○​ Percolation of water should happen through cracks.

●​ Limestone + magnesium is dolomite otherwise, limestalk is calcite. The purest

form of limestone is chalk.
●​ Landforms:
○​ Sinkholes- A sinkhole, also known as a cenote, sink, sink-hole, swallet,
swallow hole, or doline (the different terms for sinkholes are often used
interchangeably), is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some
form of collapse of the surface layer. Most are caused by karst
processes-for example, the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks.
○​ Uvalas- Karst depressions that are much larger than sinkholes and that
display
gentler slopes and more complex three-dimensional shapes are known as
uvalas. Uvalas is a collection of multiple smaller individual sinkholes that
coalesce into a compound sinkhole. A single uvala typically contains numerous
sinkholes within it.
 ○​ Polje- A polje, also karst polje or karst field, is a large flat plain found in
karstic geological regions of the world, with areas usually 5 to 400 km. This
is an underground cave formed by water action through various methods in a
limestone or chalk area.
○​ Cave formation- It is prominent in areas where there are alternating beds of
rocks (shales, sandstones, quartzites) with limestones or dolomites in between or
in areas where limestones are dense, massive and occur as thick beds
○​ Blind valley- A valley that ends abruptly where a river or stream disappears
underground, typically into a cave system.
○​ Stalactite- Icicle-shaped mineral formations hanging from the ceilings of caves.
Created by the deposition of calcium carbonate from dripping water saturated
with dissolved minerals.
○​ Stalagmite- Mineral formations rising from cave floors directly below
stalactites. Formed by mineral deposits from water droplets falling from
stalactites.
○​ Pillars- Formed when stalactites and stalagmites grow until they meet, creating
a continuous pillar from floor to ceiling.

Aeolian Landforms

●​ Factors Responsible for Erosion

○​ Humidity- In dry climates, the lack of moisture means particles are loose
and easily blown away by the wind.
○​ Temperature- High daytime temperatures cause rocks to expand, and
cooler nights cause contraction. This thermal stress causes rocks to break
apart into smaller fragments, making them more vulnerable to wind erosion.
○​ Speed of wind- Stronger winds have greater erosive power
○​ Type of Rock- Soft, friable rocks (e.g., sandstone, shale) erode more easily.
Harder rocks (e.g., basalt, granite) resist erosion and often form the core or
cap of features like mushroom rocks.
●​ Forces responsible
○​ Attrition
○​ Abrasion
 ○​ Sand blasting- Sand blasting is the abrasive action of wind-driven
sand particles that erode rock surfaces, especially in arid and semi-arid
regions.
●​ Landforms
○​ Deflation- The removal of loose, fine particles (sand, silt) by wind. Leaves
behind
coarse pebbles (called desert pavement) and may create shallow depressions.
○​ Oasis/blowout: A blowout is a depression formed by deflation in a desert. If
the water table is close to the surface, water may collect in the hollow →
forming an oasis.
○​ Mushroom rock- A rock pedestal with a narrower base and wider top.
Wind-driven sand erodes the lower part more than the upper part (sand blasting
is more intense near the ground).
○​ Beugens- Formed as a result of the differential rate of erosion because
alternative layers are hard and soft layers, creating ridges and furrows.
○​ Yardongs- They are the same as beugens, except here the hard and soft rocks
are arranged horizontally.
○​ Butte- An isolated hill with
steep sides and a small
flat top. Smaller than a
mesa.
○​ Mesa- A flat-topped elevated
area with steep sides. Has
the presence of magma
intrusion.
○​ Monument- The final stage in
the erosion of a mesa or butte. Appears as an isolated pillar or column of rock.
●​ Sand dunes are the only depositional landforms.
○​ Types of sand dunes:
■​ Barchans- Crescent-shaped, with the tips (horns) pointing
downwind. The windward side is convex, while the leeward side
is concave.
■​ Parabolic- U- or V-shaped, but horns point upwind (opposite of
 Barchans)
■​ Longitudinal- Long, narrow ridges that run parallel to the prevailing
wind
■​ Star-shaped sand dunes- Pyramid-like with multiple arms
radiating from a center