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Overview
cirque
Quick Reference
Half-open, steep-sided hollow in a mountain region that has been or is being glaciated. Its form is due to a combination of glacial scouring (which deepens the floor and often produces a reversed long-profile gradient), and glacial erosion by basal sapping and gelifraction (which acts on the cirque's head and side walls).
From: cirque in A Dictionary of Earth Sciences »
Subjects: Science and technology — Earth Sciences and Geography
