Browse: Glaciers and associated features

Yukon Territory, Canada
Aerial view of active alpine glaciers in the Canadian Rockies. Notice the crevasses and the ongoing formation of alpine glacial features.

Zermatt, Switzerland
Thick glacial ice flowing over an ice fall. The ice cap on the highest peak is over 200 feet thick.
Zermatt, Switzerland
Aerial view of glacial ice approaching an ice fall. Note crevasses forming as the ice accelerates over the fall.
Zermatt, Switzerland
Aerial views of the down-slope side of an ice fall. This ice is actively moving and eroding the landscape beneath.

Matanuska Glacier, Alaska
View into the ice of the Matanuska Glacier. Note entrapped bubbles and sediment.

Matanuska Glacier, Alaska
Note the sediment being transported within the glacial ice.
Mt. Rainier, Washington
Numerous glaciers flow down the slopes of Mt. Rainier, Washington (14,410ft.). Moist Pacific air is forced to rise over the Cascade mountains, generating great snowfall that produces the many glaciers. This photo shows the Emmons Glacier as viewed from Sunrise. Little Tahoma Peak can be seen to the left (east) of Mt. Rainier.
Mt. Rainier, Washington
The snout of the Emmons Glacier, covered with sediment largely from the 1963 debris avalanche below Little Tahoma Peak on the flanks of Mt. Rainier.
Barry Glacier, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Note the layer of brittle ice with crevasses (top of glacier to a depth of approximately 100 feet) and the more solid "plastic" ice below that.
Sierra Nevada, California
Glacial striations, or scratches cut into granite bedrock by debris transported in the ice at the base of a glacier. Note two directions of striations, indicating two separate glacial advances. Camera lens cap for scale.
Sierra Nevada, California
Glacial plucking, or removal of bedrock from the down-slope side of a small bedrock hill or knob. Ice freezes to the rock and as the glacier flows downslope boulders are plucked free and incorporated into the ice. This photo immediately downslope of the striations in the previous photo.

Portage Lake, Alaska
Ice-polished rock outcrop along Portage Lake. Ice flow was from left to right.

Portage Glacier, Alaska
Bedrock is exposed beneath the terminus of the Portage Glacier. During times of greater ice thickness and flow, the glacier has the power to abrade the rocks, removing material and polishing the surface as seen in the previous photo.

Glacier National Park, Montana
Old Man Lake (a tarn) and the cirque in which it lies.

Glacier National Park, Montana 
Iceberg Lake, a tarn.

Central Colorado Rockies
Aerial view of several cirques along a mountain ridge. Note U-shaped valleys extend downslope from the cirques.
Sequoia National Park, California
Pear Lake, a tarn within a cirque. Note that most of the lake is still frozen in June, the date of this photo.
Rocky Mountains, central Colorado
The sharp ridge in the foreground is an arete. Both sides of the ridge are quite steep, having been eroded by alpine glaciers. The ski areas of Arapaho Basin, Keystone, and Breckenridge can be seen in the background.
Glacier National Park, Montana 
The Ptarmigan Wall is a good example of an arete.

Yukon Territory, Canada
Aerial view of active alpine glaciers in the Canadian Rockies. Notice the ongoing development of cirques, aretes, and horns.

Zermatt, Switzerland
The Matterhorn is a classic horn, a steep, faceted mountain having been eroded on several sides by glaciers.
Zermatt, Switzerland
The “back side” or southeastern view of the Matterhorn.
Glacier National Park, Montana 
Mt Flinsch and Old Man Lake, a tarn.
Snowy Mountains, Montana
An especially well-formed U-shaped valley near Yellowstone National Park. Both a stream and a road now occupy the bottom of this glacial valley.
Yosemite National Park, California
The U-shaped Yosemite Valley is famous for the sheer granite cliffs and Half Dome towering above the valley floor.
Rocky Mountains, central Colorado
This U-shaped valley is partially filled with sediments deposited by the low-energy stream meandering through wetlands.
Glacier National Park, Montana 
The U-shaped valley of McDonald Creek, occupied by Lake McDonald in the background.
Glacier National Park, Montana 
The many lakes of Swiftcurrent Creek, occupying a U-shaped valley.
Mt. Rainier, Washington
The Nisqually glacier is currently eroding bedrock beneath the ice. One can imagine the shape of the valley beneath being slowly broadened into a classic U-shaped glacial valley.
Mt. Rainier, Washington
The Nisqually River valley, just downstream of the present glacier terminus. Note the freshly eroded trim line indicating the recent extent of glacial ice further down-valley.
Mt. Rainier, Washington
The Nisqually River
reworks the sediment delivered by the Nisqually glacier, producing an outwash deposit.
Glacier National Park, Montana 
A hanging valley can be seen in the upper right quadrant of the photo.
Yosemite National Park, California
Bridal Veil Falls is a classic hanging valley, with a waterfall dropping to Yosemite Valley.

Prince William Sound, Alaska 
A small hanging glacier above the main valley occupied by the fiord.

Kenai Fiords National Park, Alaska 
Aialik Glacier, responsible for cutting the fiord beyond the present glacial terminus.

Kenai Fiords National Park, Alaska 
Holgate Glacier, responsible for cutting the fiord beyond the present glacial terminus.

Anchorage, Alaska and Region 
Satellite image of Anchorage, AK region. Note Cook Inlet (SW, lighter blue tone), and Prince William Sound (SE, darker blue tone). Matanuska Glacier is in the NE portion of the image.

Prince William Sound, Alaska (College Fiord) 
Harvard glacier. Note the well-developed medial moraines.

Near the Matanuska Glacier, Alaska
Till exposed below the Matanuska Glacier. Note the wide range of particle sizes in this unsorted glacial sediment.

Hamburg, Germany
A large glacial erratic locally known as "The Swede." Pleistocene glaciers transported this 5m boulder from Sweden to the valley of the Elbe River in northern Germany.

Matanuska Glacier, Alaska 
Note the clean ice (right) and debris-covered ice (left), with a terminal moraine just beyond the modern glacier.

Matanuska Glacier, Alaska 
Note the terminal moraine continuing to form in front of the glacier.

Prince William Sound, Alaska (College and Harriman Fiords) 
This marine chart indicates submerged terminal moraines (shown as light blue, indicating shallow water) at the mouth of each fiord.

Resurrection Bay, Alaska 
Terminal moraine with a “ghost forest” of trees that died after subsidence during the 1964 earthquake exposed their roots to salt water.

Zermatt, Switzerland
Sediment deposits known as lateral moraines can be seen flanking the sides of this valley glacier. Also note the crevasses where the slope flattens out and ice is forced to decelerate.
Zermatt, Switzerland
Extensive lateral moraines extending further down-valley than the present position of the valley glacier.
Mt. Rainier, Washington
Note the well-developed lateral moraine to the right of the lower Emmons Glacier.

Prince William Sound, Alaska (College Fiord) 
Coxe Glacier, Barry Arm of Prince William Sound, AK. Note the lateral moraine and subglacial meltwater flow on the right.

Yukon Territory, Canada
Aerial view of active alpine glaciers in the Canadian Rockies. Notice the medial moraines.

Prince William Sound, Alaska (College Fiord) 
Harvard glacier. Note the well-developed medial moraines on the glacier and within the iceberg in the foreground.

near Sun Prairie, southern Wisconsin
A drumlin can be seen in the background of this photo.
Kettle Moraine State Park, southeastern Wisconsin
The rolling hills in the background of this photo are drumlins.
southern Wisconsin
A sand and gravel quarry has exposed the sediments that make up this drumlin. Note that drumlins are deposits formed by continental glaciers.
Kettle Moraine State Park, southeastern Wisconsin
The lake in the background is a kettle.

Southern Canadian Prairies
Aerial view of kettle lakes.

Minnesota
Aerial view of kettle lakes.

Matanuska Glacier, Alaska 
Meltwater entering a moulin on the Matanuska Glacier.

Matanuska Glacier, Alaska 
Vertical view into the same moulin on the Matanuska Glacier.

Yukon Territory, Canada
Aerial view of glacial valleys and braided streams transporting outwash away from the glacial terminus.

Matanuska River, Alaska 
Several miles below the Matanuska Glacier, the Matanuska River transports an enormous load of outwash. Note the loess deposits in the exposed bluff (foreground) and the terrace just beyond the river.

Matanuska River, Alaska 
Sediment exposure along the Matanuska River several miles below the Matanuska Glacier. Note the fine sands at the top overlying loess, then till.