Glacial Landforms Diagram – A Glacial Landscape to Label

All 14 landforms on the diagram

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Carved by ice 6

U-shaped valley A valley with steep walls and a broad, flat floor. A glacier widens and over-steepens a V-shaped stream valley into this shape.
Cirque A bowl-shaped hollow carved by a glacier. It lies at the head or on the side of a glacier valley.
Arête A jagged, narrow ridge between two cirques or valleys. Its crest is often compared to the blade of a serrated knife.
Horn A pointed, pyramid-shaped mountain peak. The walls of three or more cirques bound it.
Hanging valley A side valley that ends high above the main valley floor. Its stream often enters the main valley as a waterfall.
Tarn A lake in the basin of a cirque. It generally forms after the glacier has melted.

Left by ice 8

Lateral moraine A ridge of rock debris along the side of a glacier. The rock falls onto the ice from the valley wall.
Medial moraine A ridge of rock debris down the middle of a glacier. It forms where two glaciers merge and their lateral moraines join.
Terminal moraine A ridge of sediment at the farthest point a glacier reached. It is also called an end moraine.
Drumlin A smooth, elongated hill of glacial sediment shaped under moving ice. Its long axis runs the way the ice moved.
Esker A winding ridge of sand and gravel. A stream under or inside the glacier laid it down.
Kettle lake A lake in a hollow left by a melted block of ice. The block was buried in sediment when the glacier retreated.
Erratic A rock carried far from its source by a glacier. It often rests on bedrock of a different kind.
Outwash plain A broad, gently sloping plain of sediment spread by meltwater streams. It lies in front of the place where the ice ended.

How this list was compiled: Every name and definition checked on 2026-10-02 in two independent sources. (1) US Geological Survey, Glossary of Glacier Terminology (Open-File Report 2004-1216), https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1216/text.html : arete, cirque, horn, hanging valley, tarn, U-shaped valley, lateral, medial and terminal (end) moraine, drumlin, esker, kettle, erratic, outwash plain. (2) National Park Service, Glossary of Geologic Terms, table at https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/geology/DBD85DC6-CA83-CEE3-0786454132D79FCD/nri-GlossaryTable.csv : cirque, arete, horn, hanging valley, drumlin, erratic, outwash plain. (3) Tulane University, EENS 1110 Physical Geology, Glaciers and Glaciation, https://www2.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens1110/glaciers.htm : cirques and tarns, U-shaped glacial valleys, aretes, horns, hanging valleys, lateral, medial and terminal moraines, drumlins, eskers, kettle lakes, erratics, outwash plains. (4) Wikipedia, Glacial landform, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_landform : the split into erosional and depositional landforms; cirque, U-shaped valley, horn (pyramidal peak), tarn, kettle lake, esker, terminal, lateral and medial moraine. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-02 from plain geometry. The landscape is invented; nothing is traced or copied. Licence: own work

How it works

This glacial landforms diagram is one invented mountain valley with a glacier left at its head. Study the fourteen landforms, quiz yourself, or print the landscape blank and label it by hand.

Read the full guide

Carved by ice

Start on the skyline. A cirque is a bowl carved by a glacier, and a tarn is the lake left in it. An arête is the knife-edge ridge between two cirques; where three or more cirques meet, they leave a horn. Lower down, the ice widens a stream valley into a U-shaped valley and leaves a side valley hanging above its floor.

Left by ice

Moraines are ridges of rock debris: lateral along the side of the ice, medial down the middle, terminal at the farthest point the ice reached. Drumlins, eskers, erratics and kettle lakes lie where the ice once stood. Meltwater spreads the outwash plain beyond.

Told to draw a glacial landscape and label the glacial features? Copy this one: the skyline first, then the valley, then the lowland.

Questions and answers

What landforms are made by glacial erosion?

Cirques, arêtes, horns, U-shaped valleys and hanging valleys. A glacier carves them by plucking chunks of rock away and by grinding the bedrock with the debris frozen into its base.

What landforms are made by glacial deposition?

Moraines, drumlins, eskers, erratics and outwash plains. All are rock and sediment that the ice carried and dropped, or that meltwater washed out of it. A kettle lake fills a hollow that a buried block of ice left in that sediment.

What is the difference between a lateral, medial and terminal moraine?

A lateral moraine runs along the side of a glacier. A medial moraine runs down the middle, where two glaciers have merged. A terminal moraine lies across the valley at the farthest point the ice reached.

Why is a glacial valley U-shaped?

A stream cuts a valley that is V-shaped in cross-section. A glacier flowing down it widens and over-steepens the valley, leaving steep walls and a broad, flat floor.