Welcome to this deck on glacial landscapes. This is an optional topic in your GCSE Geography paper, so it's a good idea to check with your teacher that you need to study it. In this deck, you'll learn how immense rivers of ice have the power to carve out entire mountainsides, transport huge boulders, and leave behind some of the most dramatic and beautiful scenery in the world.

Before a glacier can erode the land, the rock is often weakened by weathering. A key process in cold environments is freeze-thaw weathering. This happens when water enters cracks in a rock, freezes, and expands by about nine percent. This expansion puts pressure on the rock. Repeated freezing and thawing widens the cracks until eventually, pieces of rock break off.

Glaciers erode the landscape in two main ways. The first is called plucking. As a glacier moves, meltwater at its base can freeze onto rocks. When the glacier moves forward, it pulls these chunks of rock away, or 'plucks' them from the ground, leaving behind a jagged surface.

The second main process of glacial erosion is abrasion. This is where the rocks and sediment already embedded in the glacier act like sandpaper. As the glacier moves, these rocks scrape and grind against the valley floor and sides, wearing them away. This process leaves a smooth, often polished surface, which may have long scratches called striations.