Common all over the world, glaciated valleys are probably the most readily visible glacial landform. Similar to fiords, they are trough-shaped, often with steep vertical cliffs where entire mountainsides were removed by glacial action. One of the most striking examples of glaciated valleys can be seen in Yosemite National Park, where glaciers literally sheared away mountainsides, creating deep valleys with vertical walls.
Fiords, such as those in Norway, are long, narrow coastal valleys that were originally carved out by glaciers. Steep sides and rounded bottoms give them a trough-like appearance. Because the glacier has eroded the land surface below sea level, now that the glaciers are gone, sea water covers the valley floor.
The famous Matterhorn in Switzerland displays three types of glacial erosion:
The Matterhorn in Switzerland was carved away by glacial erosion. The cirque on this side still contains a glacier, and to the far left, a hanging glacier clings precariously to the side of the peak. Notice the crevasses on each of the glaciers. This photograph dates from 1894. (WDC-A for Glaciology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.)
Fiords, glaciated valleys, and horns are all erosional types of landforms, created when a glacier cuts away at the landscape. Another type of glacial landform is created by deposition, or what a glacier leaves as it retreats or melts away.
An eroded moraine juts above the landscape in the Rhone Valley, Switzerland. Giant boulders stud some of the pinnacles, left behind by a retreating glacier. A small tunnel has been cut through the moraine, seen at the center of the photograph. (H.F. Reid Collection, 1902, at the WDC-A for Glaciology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.)
Till is material that is deposited as glaciers retreat, leaving behind mounds of gravel, small rocks, sand and mud. It is made from the rock and soil ground up beneath the glacier as it moves. Glacial till can form excellent soil for farmland.
Material a glacier picks up or pushes as it moves form moraines along the surface and sides of the glacier. As a glacier retreats, the ice literally melts away from underneath the moraines, so they leave long, narrow ridges that show where the glacier used to be. Glaciers don't always leave moraines behind, because sometimes the glacier's own meltwater carries the material away.
Streams flowing from glaciers often carry some of the rock and soil debris out with them. These streams deposit the debris as they flow. Consequently, after many years, small steep-sided mounds of soil and gravel begin to form adjacent to the glacier, called kames.
Kettle lakes form when a piece of glacier ice breaks off and becomes buried by glacial till or moraine deposits. Over time the ice melts, leaving a small depression in the land, filled with water. Kettle lakes are usually very small, and are more like ponds than lakes.
Glaciers leave behind anything they pick up along the way, and sometimes this includes huge rocks. Called erratic boulders, these rocks might seem a little out of place, which is true, because glaciers have literally moved them far away from their source before melting away.
Drumlins are long, streamlined tear-drop-shaped formations. They are created when a glacier deposits material as it is flowing and then moves over it. Because they are deposited and shaped by glacier movement, all the drumlins left by a particular glacier will face the same direction. Often, groups of several thousand drumlins are found in one place, looking very much like whalebacks when seen from above.