Glacial geomorphology

Glacial geomorphology studies landforms created or modified by glaciers and ice sheets, including features formed by erosion, sediment transport, and meltwater.

Glacier: A persistent body of ice formed from accumulated snow that moves under its own weight. Glacier motion supplies the ice that erodes bedrock and leaves distinctive landforms.
Glacial abrasion: The grinding of bedrock by rock fragments carried at a glacier's base. It creates striations and polished surfaces that indicate ice movement.
Drumlin: An elongated hill of glacial sediment or bedrock shaped beneath moving ice. Its streamlined form records the direction and dynamics of former ice flow.
Louis Agassiz: A Swiss-American naturalist who advanced the theory that large parts of Europe had once been covered by glaciers. His glacial theory helped establish ice as an agent capable of reshaping continents.
Glacial lake: A lake formed in contact with, within, or beside a glacier or its deposits. Its basin and outlet can reveal former ice margins and present flood risks.
Glacial erosion: The wearing away of rock and sediment by moving glacier ice and its debris. Erosion produces many of the polished, scratched, and excavated forms mapped by the field.
Glacial plucking: The removal of bedrock blocks by glacier ice from fractured or jointed rock. Plucking helps explain steep, irregular rock surfaces and overdeepened valleys.
Esker: A winding ridge of sand and gravel deposited by a stream flowing within or beneath a glacier. Its sinuous course preserves the route of a former meltwater tunnel.
James Croll: A Scottish scientist who linked variations in Earth's orbit to long-term changes in climate and glaciation. His orbital explanation connected glacial landforms to repeated climate cycles.
Glacial hazard: A threat to people or infrastructure arising from glaciers, ice-dammed water, or glacier-related terrain. Geomorphic evidence helps identify unstable lakes, slopes, and sediment pathways.

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