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Geological Formations

Glen

Erosional and Karst Formations

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A glen is a valley with gentle slopes and a concave cross-section, distinguishing it from a narrower, steeper-sided ravine. The term comes from the Goidelic languages and is used chiefly in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, and it recurs in place names across Northern England, Wales, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. In New York's Finger Lakes region, for example, local glens formed as streams eroded through glacial moraine deposited roughly ten thousand years ago.

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