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How did glaciers help create the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps?
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glacial landform
Eskers,
or narrow
ridges of
gravel and sand left by a retreating glacier,
wind through western
Nunavut, Canada, near the Thelon River.
The Matterhorn was shaped by the process of glacial erosion during the Quaternary Period, which modeled the landscape of the Alps into its current form.1
Specifically, the mountain is classified as a horn, a landform created when three or more cirques develop in a radial pattern around a mountain's flanks. As these cirques undergo headward erosion, they carve into the mountainside, leaving behind steep, near-vertical cliffs and sharp, knife-edge ridges known as arĂȘtes.23
The convergence of these erosional forcesâdriven by frost action, ice wedging, and the scouring power of moving iceâgradually whittled away the surrounding rock, leaving the isolated, pyramidal peak that defines the Matterhorn today.312