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

TARN

    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
A glacial lake produced by abrasion and plucking of bedrock on the bottom of a cirque.
Lake Ellen Wilson is an example of a tarn. The back wall of the cirque containing Lake Ellen Wilson is marked on the topographic map in red. The photo was taken part-way down the cirque headwall where the camera is located, looking toward the southwest.

Photo: tarn

Photo: K.A. Lemke. Used with permission.

Topographic map: tarn
| More Examples of Tarns |

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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.