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cirque


cirques
Southwest-looking oblique aerial photograph showing a number of snow-covered cirques, cut into the summit of a Coast Mountains ridge along the Alaska-Canada border, east of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. Credit: USGS
Also known as a corrie or cwm, a steep-sided hollow formed by glacial erosion, usually occupied by a lake where the glacier has retreated, or by névé where the glacier is still present. Typically, a cirque has a lip at its lower end. The term is French and is derived from the Latin word circus. See also erosion.


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