Title Bar: Illustrated Glossary of Alpine Glacial Landforms | Home   | Glossary   | Exercise |

OGIVES

    Erosional Landforms
    Arete
    Cirque
    Col
    Giant stair steps
    Glacial trough
    Groove
    Hanging valley
    Headwall
    Horn
    Paternoster lakes
    Striations
    Tarn
    U-shaped valley

    Depositional Landforms
    Moraine
    End moraine
    Ground moraine
    Lateral moraine
    Medial moraine

    Ice Features
    Cirque glacier
    Valley glacier
    Crevasse
    Ice fall
    Ogives
Alternating bands of light and dark ice that form a series of ridges and swales at the base of some ice falls. The arcuate bands bend down-glacier due to the faster flow in the center of the glacier than along the sides of the valley walls. The dark bands represent ice that moved over the fall during the summer season when more melting occurs and form swales. The light bands represent ice that moved over the fall during the winter season when little or no melting occurs and form ridges.
Photo: ogives

This photo shows ogives at the base of Suicide Icefall in Alaska. Since glacial flow is faster in the middle of the glacier, the bands bend down-glacier. The total width of one pair of light and dark bands represents the distance moved by the glacier in a one year period.

Photo: L. Freeman. Used with permission.
| More Examples of Ogives |

| Home | Glossary | Exercise |

| Virtual Geography Department Project | Physical Geography Working Group |
All commercial rights reserved. Copyright 2010 by Karen A. Lemke. Earlier copyright 2002 by Karen A. Lemke, and 1998 by Karen A. Lemke and Linda Freeman.
Last updated June 2010 KAL.