U-shaped valleys and their features
U-shaped valleys
Glaciers cut distinctive u-shaped valleyA wide valley carved out by glaciers., or troughs, with a flat floor and steep sides. The glacier uses the processes of plucking and abrasion to widen, steepen, deepen and smooth 'V'-shaped river valleys into a 'U' shape.
The interlocking spurHill that a river meanders around in a V-shaped valley. When viewed from downstream, these spurs appear to be locked together. in the narrow V-shaped river valley are cut-off by the ice, creating truncated spurA rounded area of land at the edge of a U-shaped valley.. After glaciationThe build up of ice on the land during colder periods in time., a mis-fit streamA small river occupying the floor of a u-shaped valley./river or ribbon lake can sometimes occupy the floor of the U-shaped valley.
Valley floor landforms
Ribbon lakes and misfit streams/rivers
A ribbon lakeA long narrow lake found in a glacial trough. is a large, narrow lake occupying a U-shaped valley. It forms in a hollow where a glacier has more deeply eroded less resistant rock or it may fill up a valley behind a wall of moraineThe debris, rocks and materials that a glacier has picked up, transported and then deposited. across the valley.
Misfit streams/rivers meanderA bend in a river. through the flat, wide U-shaped floor. They have not eroded the valley, as they formed there after glaciation had carved out the much larger U-shaped valley.