Cirques

Granite Creek Tarn, sitting inside a mostly inactive cirque, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park,AK. Credit: USNPS

Cirques are the highest erosional feature of alpine glaciers. They are the place where snowpack becomes glacier, and where the flow paths of alpine glaciers find their provenance. They are the beginning of the U-shaped valley, eroding in much the same way, just with a confining feature at their rear.

Map of Glacial Landforms

Other Glacial Landforms