Glacial erosion and deposition create distinctive landforms within glaciated upland landscapes — Edexcel GCSE Geography A
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Glacial erosion and deposition create distinctive landforms within glaciated upland landscapes explained
Glacial erosion and deposition create distinctive landforms within glaciated upland landscapes covers 3 specification points, including A.
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The role of erosional processes in the… and B. The role of depositional processes in the…. Open a point below for its explanation and revision guidance.
a. The role of erosional processes in the development of landforms (truncated spurs, corries, glacial troughs, glacial lake/tarns, arêtes, hanging valleys and roche moutonnées).
This statement asks you to explain how erosion creates glaciated upland landforms and to describe seven features. Glaciers erode by plucking, where meltwater refreezes around rock and tears blocks away, and abrasion, where debris in the ice grinds bedrock. Truncated spurs are blunt ends of spurs that a glacier has cut across. Corries are armchair hollows at valley heads, formed by plucking and rotational slip; a glacial lake or tarn may occupy one. Glacial troughs are U-shaped valleys, and hanging valleys are tributary valleys left high above them. Arêtes are sharp ridges between corries, and roche moutonnées are outcrops with a smoothed stoss side and a plucked lee side.
b. The role of depositional processes in the development of landforms (ground and terminal moraines).
This statement asks you to explain how depositional processes build landforms, using ground and terminal moraines as the named examples. Deposition occurs when a glacier loses the energy to carry its load, often as ice melts. Ground moraine is material left beneath the ice as it retreats, forming a sheet of till. Terminal moraine is a ridge of debris dumped at the furthest point the glacier reached. Ground moraine spreads widely and thinly, whereas terminal moraine forms a distinct ridge. Practise explaining where the debris came from and why it was left there.
c. The interaction of deposition and erosion processes in the development of landforms (crag and tail and drumlins).
This statement asks you to explain how erosion and deposition interact to form crag and tail and drumlins, not to describe each process separately. On a crag and tail, abrasion smooths the up-ice face while plucking removes rock from the lee side, and till deposited behind the crag forms the tail. For a drumlin, moving ice deposits and moulds till into an elongated, streamlined hill with its steep end facing up-ice. Show cause and effect: erosion supplies and shapes material, and deposition builds and reshapes the landform in the same place. Practise by sketching each landform, labelling where each process operates, then writing one linking sentence for each.
Your focus
- Name the seven erosional landforms listed in the statement.
- Describe the erosional process that forms each listed landform.
- Explain how glacial erosion changes a pre-glacial valley.
Show all 9 objectives
- Name the two depositional landforms listed in the statement.
- Describe how each moraine forms.
- Explain the difference in shape and position between ground and terminal moraines.
- Label a sketch of a crag and tail showing where abrasion, plucking and deposition operate.
- Explain in a written sentence how till deposition shapes a drumlin in relation to ice flow.
- Identify one erosional process and one depositional process acting on the same landform.
Glacial erosion and deposition create distinctive landforms within glaciated upland landscapes exam tips
Marking Points
- Identifies plucking and abrasion as the erosional processes responsible for the listed landforms.
- Links truncated spurs to a glacier cutting across the blunt ends of interlocking spurs in a former river valley.
- Describes corries as armchair-shaped hollows at valley heads formed by plucking and rotational slip.
- Distinguishes a glacial trough, a U-shaped valley, from a river valley, which is V-shaped.
- Explains hanging valleys as tributary valleys left high above the main glacial trough.
- Describes arêtes and roche moutonnées by their shape and by the side affected by erosion.
- Identifies deposition as the process that leaves debris when a glacier loses its capacity to carry it.
- Describes ground moraine as material deposited beneath the ice, forming till across the valley floor.
- Describes terminal moraine as a ridge of debris deposited at the furthest extent of the glacier.
- Distinguishes ground moraine, which is widespread and thin, from terminal moraine, which forms a distinct ridge.
- Links both moraines to the glacier's advance and retreat.
- Identifies abrasion on the up-ice face and plucking on the lee side as erosional processes acting on the crag.
- Explains that till deposited in the lee of the crag builds the tail, linking deposition to the erosional form.
- Describes how moving ice deposits and moulds till into a streamlined drumlin with a steep up-ice end.
- Links erosion and deposition as interacting processes acting on the same landform rather than as separate events.
- Uses accurate terms such as abrasion, plucking, till, lee and stoss to show precise understanding.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Learn each feature together with its process and the sentence that links them, rather than memorising names alone.
- 💡Sketch a labelled diagram of a glaciated valley to check you can place corries, arêtes and hanging valleys correctly.
- 💡When a multiple-choice option names a process, check that it fits the feature described before selecting it.
- 💡Explain deposition with a reason, such as ice melting or losing energy, to show understanding rather than naming the landform only.
- 💡Check whether an option describes a feature's location or its formation before selecting it.
- 💡Compare the two moraines in one sentence each, stating their shape and position.
- 💡Draw and label a simple diagram of each landform before writing, marking erosion and deposition zones separately.
- 💡Write one linking sentence per landform using because or so to show cause and effect between the two processes.
- 💡State the direction of ice flow in each answer, because it determines where the steep and tapering ends of a drumlin lie.
Common Mistakes
- Attributes truncated spurs to deposition; correct this to erosion, because the glacier cuts across existing spurs.
- Describes a roche moutonnée as having a plucked stoss side; correct this to a smoothed stoss side with a plucked lee side.
- Treats a hanging valley as lying at the same level as the main trough; correct this to a valley left high above the trough.
- Attributes terminal moraine to erosion; correct this to deposition of debris at the glacier's furthest extent.
- Places terminal moraine at the head of a corrie; correct this to the glacier's furthest point down-valley.
- Describes ground moraine as a steep ridge across the valley; correct this to a widespread, thin layer of till.
- Treats erosion and deposition as separate stages with no link; correct this by explaining how one process supplies or shapes material for the other.
- Places the tail on the up-ice side of the crag; correct this by placing it in the lee, where deposition occurs as ice flow slows.
- Describes drumlins as eroded hills; correct this by stating that they are built of deposited till that ice flow has moulded.
- Confuses the ends of a drumlin; correct this by stating that the steep end faces up-ice and the tapering end points down-ice.