U Shaped Valleys - Cool Geography

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U shaped valleys

Gap-fill exercise

Fill in all the gaps, then press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. You can also click on the "[?]" button to get a clue. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints or clues! Use the following words to complete the passage below - Plucks/ interlocking spurs/ tributary/ waterfalls/ V-shaped/ ribbon/ melt/ moraine/ erodingAs corrie glaciers leave their source regions and descend down old river valleys they can make huge changes to the landscape. One of the major change they make is to the [?] valleys characteristic of the upper reaches of river valleys. The glaciers basically alter this V shape into a U, by creating a steep sided, wide valley in the shape of the letter U. They are formed by a valley glacier that moves down the valley because of gravity. As the glacier moves down the valley it [?] the rock from beneath and those rocks then rub against the bed of the valley, [?] it further. This deepens and widens the valley. At the front end of the glacier it acts like a bulldozer, shifting and removing soil, plucking rock from [?] and truncating them. This creates Truncated Spurs, which are interlocking spurs without the land that interlocks! Originally, truncated spurs are created as a river erodes the upper valley it cuts down into the rock and meanders in and out of the surrounding rock. During glaciations this rock is removed by descending ice sheets.Within U shaped valleys you can often find [?] lakes. These are long and thin lakes that collect from [?] water and rain water after the glacier has melted. During glaciations the glacier erodes some parts of the valley floor more than others. This could be because of varying strengths of the bedrock or because there is thicker ice in one region of the glacier than another or because there is more [?] abrading the ground in one region than another. When the glacier melts water fills the depressions (holes) where the valley floor was eroded most. These lakes can also form because melt water from receding glaciers is trapped behind Moraine, which is discussed below.Within glacial valleys there are main glaciers and smaller tributary glaciers (just like with rivers). The main glacier can erode its valley to a much greater extent because they are wider, deeper, have more mass and more moraine to use as erosive tools. The [?] valley glaciers are smaller, have less mass and moraine hence erode their valley less. This means that the main valley is deeper, wider and steeper, and this becomes really evident post glaciation, when the tributary glacier is left hanging high above the main valley. When rivers return, they often form [?] in these hanging valleys. This can all be seen in the images below. it further. This deepens and widens the valley. At the front end of the glacier it acts like a bulldozer, shifting and removing soil, plucking rock from and truncating them. This creates Truncated Spurs, which are interlocking spurs without the land that interlocks! Originally, truncated spurs are created as a river erodes the upper valley it cuts down into the rock and meanders in and out of the surrounding rock. During glaciations this rock is removed by descending ice sheets. Check Hint OK

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