The wearing away of bedrock and sediment by moving glacial ice, working through plucking, in which ice freezes onto joint-bounded blocks of rock and tears them free, and abrasion, in which rock fragments embedded in the ice's base grind and scratch the surface beneath. It is the dominant force carving U-shaped valleys, cirques and fjords in glaciated mountain landscapes.
Facts
Process Type Timescaleapproximately 100,000 years to form a U-shaped valley, mountain ranges erode over millions of years 1 Connections
Caused By
Causes
Source Arete Formation (Wikipedia)
Source Cirque Formation (Wikipedia)
Source Roche Moutonnee Formation (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Glacial erosion - Wikipedia
Glaciers section, processes sentence
Glaciers erode predominantly by three different processes: abrasion/scouring, plucking, and ice thrusting.
Glaciers section, timescale paragraph
Scientists also provide a numerical estimate of the time required for the ultimate formation of a steady-shaped U-shaped valley, approximately 100,000 years. Mountain ranges take millions of years to erode to the degree they effectively cease to exist.
View the SourceCirque Formation (Wikipedia)
Arete Formation (Wikipedia)
Roche Moutonnee Formation (Wikipedia)
Glacial Plucking (Wikipedia)
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