Fluvioglacial landscapes and landforms

Question 1

What are melt water channels?

Answer 1

• Streams of melt water formed by higher temperatures.
  Pressure from the glacier means they are highly erosive.
  Once they lose energy they deposit sorted material in islands called braided channels.

Question 2

How do kames form?

Answer 2

• Material collects in a depression on top of the glacier.
• When the glacier melts completely, material is left on the valley floor.
• Kames are sorted with the heaviest load deposited first with the finer sediment on top.

Question 3

What are eskers?

Answer 3

Eskers are long winding ridges of glacial deposition.
The material is deposited when the subglacial melt water channel loses energy.
High hydro-static pressure causes mounds to build up and retains its shape.

Question 4

What are outwash plains?

Answer 4

Melt water is released as the glacier melts which, in turn, causes the water to lose energy. As the melt water loses energy it deposits material in a sorted fashion, largest till first, than the smaller sediment.
The deposition can cause alluvial fans.
Alluvial fans are when melt water channels split into smaller separate sections in order to take the fastest route through deposited material.