2.4.4

Erosional Landforms 3

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Small Glacial Landforms

A range of glacial erosional processes have created a variety of distinctive small landforms in many upland glaciated areas around the world.

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Rouches moutonnees

  • Rouches moutonnees are isolated rocks, generally between 5 to 30m in height, along the base of a glaciated valley.
  • They are characteristically smooth on one side and jagged on another.
  • They form where a glacier moves over a band of harder rock and it smoothes the upstream side by abrasion often leaving striations to show the direction of movement.
  • As the glacier spills over the top of the obstruction it removes the loose rocks by plucking, leaving a jagged edge on the downstream side.
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Knock and lochan

  • These are Scottish names for an irregular landscape of small, bare, ice-sculpted hills (knocks) and small lakes (lochans).
  • They are the result of widespread abrasion and plucking by an ice sheet moving across an extensive area of hard metamorphic rock (gneiss).
  • Erosion of faults and joints has created the lochan from softer rocks and knocks leftover from the more resistant rocks.
  • Differential geology, therefore, plays a key role.
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Crag and tail

  • Crag and tails are created by differential geology.
  • A resistant rock forms an outstanding feature as it doesn't get eroded as much as surrounding rock. This is the crag.
  • Deposition of eroded material in the lee of the crag creates the tail.
  • Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile down its tail is an excellent example of this feature.

Jump to other topics

1Tectonic Processes & Hazards

2Option 2A: Glaciated Landscapes & Change

3Option 2B: Coastal Landscapes & Change

4Globalisation

5Option 4A: Regenerating Places

6Option 4B: Diverse Places

7The Water Cycle & Water Insecurity (A2 only)

8The Carbon Cycle & Energy Security (A2 only)

9Superpowers (A2 only)

10Option 8A: Health & Human Rights (A2 only)

11Option 8B: Migration & Identity (A2 only)

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