Fluvioglacial processes and landforms

Question 1

What are fluvioglacial landscapes?

Answer 1

They are associated with flowing water in glacial or periglacial environments

Question 2

What is an outwash plain?

Answer 2

An extensive, gently sloping area of gravels and sands formed in front of a glacier.

Question 3

What is an Esker?

Answer 3

A long ridge made of sand and gravel reaching 30 m high and several km wide.

Question 4

How to kettle holes form?

Answer 4

When blocks of ice are washed onto the plain they melt and leave a gap in the sediments. These holes fill with water

Question 5

What is a kettle hole?

Answer 5

A small depression in the ground filled with a lake or marsh

Question 6

How are eskers formed?

Answer 6

They’re deposited by meltwater streams flowing in tunnels underneath the glacier

Question 7

What are kames?

Answer 7

Mounds of sand and gravel found on the valley floor. Meltwater stream on top of glaciers collect in depressions and deposit layers of debris. When the ice melts the debris is dumped onto the valley floor

Question 8

What are kame terraces?

Answer 8

Piles of deposits left against the valley wall by meltwater streams that run between the glacier and the valley sides- similar to lateral moraines but just sorted

They are sorted, so gravel is at the bottom and finer sediment on top.