GCSE Geography | Glacial erosion landforms, ice age and sheets

Geography Quiz - Glacial Erosion Landforms (Questions)

Ice can carve mountains into dramatic shapes. This quiz looks at how glaciers erode rock to create corries, arêtes, pyramidal peaks and U-shaped valleys.

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Fascinating Fact:

A pyramidal peak develops when three or more corries cut back into a mountain top, leaving a pointed summit, for example the Matterhorn.

In GCSE Geography, glacial erosion landforms show how powerful moving ice can reshape upland areas. Processes like abrasion and plucking deepen corries, sharpen arêtes, and turn V-shaped river valleys into distinctive U-shaped glacial troughs.

Key Terms

Corrie: A steep, armchair-shaped hollow on a mountainside formed by glacier erosion, often containing a small lake called a tarn.
Arête: A narrow, knife-edge ridge formed when two corries erode back-to-back on either side of a mountain ridge.
U-shaped valley: A wide, flat-floored valley with steep sides created when a glacier erodes and widens a former V-shaped river valley.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What are glacial erosion landforms in GCSE Geography?

Glacial erosion landforms are features created when moving ice wears away rock. Examples include corries, arêtes, pyramidal peaks, U-shaped valleys, hanging valleys, and truncated spurs in upland areas.

How does a glacier erode the landscape?

Glaciers erode mainly through abrasion and plucking. Rocks frozen into the base of the ice grind the bedrock, while meltwater refreezes around blocks of rock and pulls them away as the glacier moves.

What is the difference between glacial erosion and deposition?

Glacial erosion removes and wears away rock to create landforms like corries and U-shaped valleys. Glacial deposition happens when the ice drops sediment, forming features such as moraines and drumlins.

Try These Related Quizzes

The place where a glacier forms is ...

[ ]	corrie
[ ]	cwm
[ ]	cirque
[ ]	all of the above

What is the letter that describes the profile of a valley that has been cut by a glacier?

[ ]	U
[ ]	V
[ ]	W
[ ]	X

What gives a glacier its erosional power?

[ ]	Loose blocks of ice
[ ]	Pieces of rock embedded within the ice
[ ]	Lateral moraines
[ ]	Wind and rain moving the ice from side to side

Which of the following features is caused by freeze-thaw weathering?

[ ]	A valley
[ ]	A pyramidal peak
[ ]	A ribbon lake
[ ]	All of the above

Which of the following features is created by the overdeepening of a glacial valley by the glacier that made it?

[ ]	Ribbon lake
[ ]	String lake
[ ]	Oxbow lake
[ ]	Glacier lake

What causes a glacier to move?

[ ]	Gravity
[ ]	Molten ice
[ ]	Molten lava
[ ]	Storms pushing down on the ice

How is a hanging valley formed?

[ ]	Plate tectonics pushes it upwards
[ ]	Water rushing out from a glacier as it is melting in the summer
[ ]	Freeze-thaw weathering occurs along a fault line that joins an established glaciated valley
[ ]	A small glacier flows into a larger one

Crib Goch is an arête on Snowdon (a mountain in Wales). It lies between two U-shaped valleys. Which of the following is the most likely way it was formed?

[ ]	Wind erosion
[ ]	Volcanic activity
[ ]	Freeze-thaw weathering
[ ]	An earthquake that happened just after Snowdon was formed

What is a truncated spur?

[ ]	A feature of a valley created by a river bursting its banks due to a glacier melting rapidly
[ ]	A feature of a ribbon lake
[ ]	An interlocking spur that has been cut by a glacier
[ ]	Another name for an interlocking spur

10.

Which of the following is not a glacial erosion landform?

[ ]	Hanging valley
[ ]	U-shaped valley
[ ]	Drumlin
[ ]	Cwm

Geography Quiz - Glacial Erosion Landforms (Answers)

The place where a glacier forms is ...

[ ]	corrie
[ ]	cwm
[ ]	cirque
[x]	all of the above

They all describe the same feature

What is the letter that describes the profile of a valley that has been cut by a glacier?

[x]	U
[ ]	V
[ ]	W
[ ]	X

A glaciated valley has a very different profile to a valley cut by a river

What gives a glacier its erosional power?

[ ]	Loose blocks of ice
[x]	Pieces of rock embedded within the ice
[ ]	Lateral moraines
[ ]	Wind and rain moving the ice from side to side

The weight of the glacier means that any pieces of rock that are embedded in the ice can scratch and scrape the soil and bedrock, causing the erosion

Which of the following features is caused by freeze-thaw weathering?

[ ]	A valley
[x]	A pyramidal peak
[ ]	A ribbon lake
[ ]	All of the above

Frost shattering of rocks at the summit of a mountain poking up from an ice sheet, combined with the presence of several glaciers around it, creates a pyramidal peak

Which of the following features is created by the overdeepening of a glacial valley by the glacier that made it?

[x]	Ribbon lake
[ ]	String lake
[ ]	Oxbow lake
[ ]	Glacier lake

These are long narrow lakes found in U-shaped valleys

What causes a glacier to move?

[x]	Gravity
[ ]	Molten ice
[ ]	Molten lava
[ ]	Storms pushing down on the ice

Glaciers move naturally downhill owing to the Earth's gravity

How is a hanging valley formed?

[ ]	Plate tectonics pushes it upwards
[ ]	Water rushing out from a glacier as it is melting in the summer
[ ]	Freeze-thaw weathering occurs along a fault line that joins an established glaciated valley
[x]	A small glacier flows into a larger one

There needs to be a significant difference in size between the two glaciers

Crib Goch is an arête on Snowdon (a mountain in Wales). It lies between two U-shaped valleys. Which of the following is the most likely way it was formed?

[ ]	Wind erosion
[ ]	Volcanic activity
[x]	Freeze-thaw weathering
[ ]	An earthquake that happened just after Snowdon was formed

Arêtes are usually narrow areas of rock between glaciated valleys