What are the two alternative names for corries?
A cirque (French: [siʁk]; from the Latin word circus) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic coire, meaning a pot or cauldron) and cwm (Welsh for ‘valley’; pronounced [kʊm]).
Why do cirques face north?
Controls on cirque aspect Firstly, north-facing cirques receive less solar radiation than south-facing cirques (in the Northern Hemisphere), resulting in lower air temperatures and less ice-melt across the year15.
What is a cirque and how is it formed?
Cirques are bowl-shaped, amphitheater-like depressions that glaciers carve into mountains and valley sidewalls at high elevations. Often, the glaciers flow up and over the lip of the cirque as gravity drives them downslope. Lakes (called tarns) often occupy these depressions once the glaciers retreat.
How is a cirque glacier formed?
A cirque is formed by ice and denotes the head of a glacier. As the ice goes melts and thaws and progressively moves downhill more rock material is scoured out from the cirque creating the characteristic bowl shape. Many cirques are so scoured that a lake forms in the base of the cirque once the ice has melted.
What is called cirque in Norway?
Cirques are commonly described as armchair-shaped hollows possessing three distinctive elements: a steep, nearly vertical headwall , a concave floor meeting the headwall in a sharp break of slope, and a lip or threshold at the entrance which may be of bedrock, glacial moraine, or both.
What is the name for the steep armchair shaped hollows?
Corries
Corries are bowl shaped hollows with a steep back wall and hollow, forming an armchair shape. They form in hollows where snow can accumulate. The snow compacts into ice and this accumulates over many years to compact into Névé then ice.
What is the difference between arêtes and cirques?
An arête is a thin, crest of rock left after two adjacent glaciers have worn a steep ridge into the rock. A horn results when glaciers erode three or more arêtes, usually forming a sharp-edged peak. Cirques are concave, circular basins carved by the base of a glacier as it erodes the landscape.
How do you pronounce the word cirque?
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /sɜːk/ Audio (UK) 0:02. (file)
- (General American) IPA: /sɝk/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k.
Where is a cirque glacier?
Cirque glaciers form in bowl-like depressions near the tops of mountains called cirques, which are typically characterized by a flat floor and steep sides (Figs.
Which is the largest cirque in the world?
The largest form in the Baltic region is Severoladozhsky (North Lake Ladoga) cirque, probably the world’s largest representative, with the length and width close to 100 km. Another example is the deepest Landsort basin of the Baltic Sea.
What is difference between Cirque and Corrie?
As nouns the difference between cirque and corrie is that cirque is (geology) a curved depression in a mountainside with steep walls, forming the end of a valley while corrie is a bowl-shaped geographical feature formed by glaciation.