Cirques

Cirques are bowl-shaped, curved valleys carved into mountainsides by glaciers over thousands of years. During the Ice Age, large ice masses accumulated and slowly eroded the bedrock through processes like plucking and abrasion, forming these depressions. Once the glacier melted, the cirque was left behind as a hollow, often with steep sides and a rounded bottom. Many cirques can host lakes called tarns. They are significant indicators of past glacial activity and are common features in mountainous regions, helping geologists understand local climate history and landscape evolution.