geography Flashcards
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Abrasion
Erosion caused by rocks and boulders in the base of a glacier acting like a file and scratching away at it.
Arête
A sharp knife like ridge formed between two corries cutting back by processes of erosion and freeze-thaw.
Bulldozing
Ice pushes material of all shapes and size as it moves slowly forward.
Conservation
managing the environment in order to preserve, protect, or restore it.
Corrie
Armchair shaped shape in the mountainside caused by glacial erosion, rotational slip and freeze-thaw weathering.
Drumlin
l A hill made of glacial till deposited by a moving glacier, usually elongated or oval in shape, with the longer axis, parallel to the former direction of ice.
Erratics
Rocks which have been transported and deposited by a glacier some distance from their source region.
Freeze-thaw weathering
(Also called frost-shattering) It occurs in cold climates when temperatures are often around freezing point and where exposed rocks contain many cracks. Water enters the cracks during the warmer day and freezes during the colder night. As the water turns into ice it expands and exerts pressure on the surrounding rock, causing pieces to break off.
glacial trough
A river valley widened and deepened by the erosive action of glaciers; it becomes ‘U’-shaped instead of the normal ‘V’-shape of a river valley.
hanging valley
A tributary valley to the main glacier, too cold and high up for ice to be able to easily move. It, therefore, was not eroded as much as the lower main valley, and today is often the site for a waterfall crashing several hundred metres to the main valley floor.
land use conflicts
Disagreements which arise when different users of the land do not agree on how it should be used.
Moraine
rost-shattered rock debris and material eroded from the valley floor and sides, transported and deposited by glaciers.
Outwash
Material, chiefly sand or gravel, deposited by meltwater streams in front of, and underneath, a glacier. The material is sorted and rounded by water action.
Plucking
A type of erosion where melt water in the glacier freezes onto rocks, and as the ice moves forward it plucks or pulls out large pieces along the rock joints.
Pyramidal peak
Where several corries cut back to meet at a central point, the mountain takes the form of a steep pyramid