Summary

Glaciers are capable of transporting their load as supraglacial material (on the surface), englacial material (within the ice) and subglacial (below the ice)

Where freeze-thaw weathering is highly active, it can weaken and break up rocks to make glacial erosion easier

Glacial erosion takes place by abrasion (sandpapering action using rocks embedded in the ice) and by plucking (ice freezes on to loose rocks and pulls them free)

Key landform in upland areas is the corrie, a large armchair-shaped hollow with a steep rocky, backwall, often filled with a glacial lake or tarn. Around the corries, steep, knife-edged aretes may form and some peaks are shaped into pyramidal peaks or horns

Former v-shaped river valleys are transformed into deep u-shaped glacial troughs with truncated spurs and hanging valleys

Gglaciers deposit their loads as unsorted glacial till or sorted fluvioglacial material

When glacial debris is deposited, five main types of landform may be created: lateral moraine, medial moraine, terminal moraine, recessional moraine and push moraine