glacier landforms

Cirque, A cirque is a bowl-shaped rock valley carved in a mountain, often with a glacier or permanent snowfield in it.

Glaciers make cirques by grinding existing valleys into a rounded shape with steep sides. This well-formed cirque in Glacier National Park contains a melt water lake, Iceberg Lake, and a small cirque glacier that produces the icebergs in it, both hidden behind the wooded ridge. Visible on the cirque wall is a small névé, or permanent field of icy snow. Another cirque appears in this picture of Longs Peak in the Colorado Rockies. Cirques are found wherever glaciers exist or where they existed in the past.

 

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