Fluvio refers to things related to rivers and glacial refers to something that is of ice. Fluvio-glacial refers to the

meltwater Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing. Meltwater ca ...

created when a

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

melts. Fluvio-glacial processes can occur on the surface and within the glacier. The deposits that happen within the glacier are revealed after the entire glacier melts or partially retreats. Fluvio-glacial

landform A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, ...

s and

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is d ...

al surfaces include:

outwash plain An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and c ...

kame A kame, or ''knob'', is a glacial landform, an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier, and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the ...

s, kame terraces,

kettle holes A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating ...

esker An esker, eskar, eschar, or os, sometimes called an ''asar'', ''osar'', or ''serpent kame'', is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North Ame ...

varve A varve is an annual layer of sediment or sedimentary rock. The word 'varve' derives from the Swedish word ''varv'' whose meanings and connotations include 'revolution', 'in layers', and 'circle'. The term first appeared as ''Hvarfig lera'' (va ...

s, and

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around th ...

Landforms

Outwash Plain

An outwash plain is both an erosional and depositional surface created by meltwater coming from the glacier. These plains are found in front of the glaciers and are typically characterized by small

braided streams A braided river, or braided channel, consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''. Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment ...

. The streams are usually small and braided because the

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand ...

size varies and the original stream gets broken up. Since these streams

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ban ...

around, the erosion happens laterally (left to right) instead of vertically (up and down). These plains are usually found beyond the end moraine deposited by the glacier.

Kame and Kame Terrace

Kame A kame, or ''knob'', is a glacial landform, an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier, and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the ...

s are small hills that consist of sediments ranging from sands to gravels. Intraglacial movement of water carries sediments and deposits them inside cavities, or holes, in the glacier; once the glacier melts or retreats, the kames is left behind as a deposit. These hills can range in size and be up to 50 m tall and 400 m wide. A kame terrace is a relatively flat surface of sediments that was deposited between the valley surface and the glacier. When kames, kame surfaces, and other fluvio-glacial landforms are combined into one landscape, it is called a kame complex or glacial

karst topography Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

Kettle Holes

Kettle holes A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating ...

are typically formed when a chunk of ice that came from the glacier is buried under fluvio-glacial sediments. Once the ice melts, the sediments fall and form a depression that can later be filled with rainwater and form

kettle lakes A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating g ...

. Kettle holes can often be found in the outwash plain of a glacier. Kettle holes can be anywhere from 5 m to 30 km wide.

Eskers

Eskers can be describes as long, curved ridges made up of sands and gravels. These surfaces were created by intraglacial streams carrying and depositing sediments as they flow through the glacier. These landforms can range from 100 m to 500 km long and 3 m to 200 m tall.

Varves

Varves are a depositional feature of a fluvio-glacial movement. They are layers of annular sediment deposits. The sizes of the sediments vary and depend on the volume of the streams, but are usually associated with mud deposits (

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

). The color and amount of the sediment deposited also varies depending upon the season; summer deposits typically have larger volumes of deposition and are characterized as being light, whereas winter deposits are usually the opposite. Winter deposits are fairly uncommon because the water is frozen into ice again.

Proglacial Lakes

Proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around th ...

s form as meltwater trapped behind a glacial feature such as an end moraine. These lakes have an intake of sediment deposited by streams within the glacier and their deposits are recorded within the varves.

References

{{Reflist Glaciology Geomorphology Fluvial geomorphology