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How do glaciers cause erosion as they move through mountains?

In: Geology, Geophysics, Erosion and Weathering [Edit categories]

Answer:

The vast ice scrapes along the stone sides of the mountains, removing a pebble here, a stone there, the occasional boulder, and so forth. The pressure of the ice encourages this by pressing the scraping surface of the bottom and side ice firmly against the mountain surface.

Have you ever seen a cheese grater? Imagine using that with very little pressure against a very hard cheese. Not much is scraped / grated off. Now, as with the vast weight of the ice, use a lot more force when sliding it against the cheese (or vice versa, depending on the type of cheese grater). Far more is scraped off.

First answer by Nyeshet. Last edit by Nyeshet. Contributor trust: 6 [recommend contributor ]. Question popularity: 2 [recommend question].

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