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Geological Formations

Rock Glacier

Sedimentary and Stratigraphic Formations

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A rock glacier is a body of angular rock debris frozen together with interstitial ice, or a former glacier buried beneath a layer of talus, that behaves like a glacier and creeps slowly downslope while the rock cover shields the ice from melting. Rock glaciers form in high-latitude or high-elevation regions and can extend from talus cones, existing glaciers, or glacial terminal moraines. The feature was historically also called a stone river, rock flow, or rock stream before rock glacier became the standard term.

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