U-shaped valley

A broad valley with a U-shaped cross-section, typically carved when a glacier widens and deepens a former river valley.

Glacial erosion: The wearing away of rock and sediment by moving glacier ice and meltwater. Abrasion and plucking widen and deepen valleys beneath moving ice.
Valley: An elongated low area between higher ground, often shaped by rivers or glaciers. A U-shaped valley is a distinctive form of this broad landform.
Glacial geomorphology: The study of landforms created by glaciers and the processes that shape them. U-shaped valleys are evidence used to interpret glacial erosion.
Yosemite Valley: A glacially modified valley in California's Sierra Nevada, known for its steep granite walls. Its broad floor and steep sides display a classic glacial trough form.
Hanging valley: A tributary valley whose floor lies above the floor of the main valley, often ending in a waterfall. The main glacier often erodes its trough more deeply than tributary glaciers.
Glacial abrasion: The scraping of bedrock by rock fragments carried in glacier ice. Debris embedded in valley glaciers grinds bedrock into broad troughs.
Glacier: A persistent body of ice that moves under its own weight over land. Moving glacier ice supplies the force that carves the valley.
Glacial striation: A groove or scratch in bedrock made by rock fragments moving beneath a glacier. Striations can indicate the direction of ice movement through a valley.
Lauterbrunnen Valley: A deep glacial valley in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, bordered by high cliffs and waterfalls. Its pronounced trough profile illustrates glacial erosion in an alpine setting.
Ribbon lake: A long, narrow lake occupying an overdeepened glacial valley. Glacially deepened sections of a valley can retain water after ice retreat.

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