Hanging valley
Topic: Landforms and their Evolution: Rivers, Groundwater, Glaciers, Waves and Wind · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Landforms and their Evolution"
Meaning
A hanging valley is a side valley whose floor sits high above the floor of the main valley. During glaciation the main glacier was much bigger and heavier than the small glaciers in the side valleys. So the main glacier cut its trough much deeper. When the ice melts, the side valleys are left "hanging" high up on the walls of the main valley. Streams from a hanging valley often drop into the main valley as waterfalls.
Example
Yosemite Valley in California, USA, is a glacial trough with hanging valleys on its sides. Bridalveil Fall pours from one of them onto the valley floor.
Don't confuse with
- Truncated spur: a ridge end that the main glacier sliced off into a steep triangular face. A hanging valley is the side valley itself, left high above the main valley floor.
Related concepts
- Glacier
- Valley glacier
- Continental glacier
- Plucking
- Cirque
- Tarn
- Horn
- Arete
- U-shaped valley
- Truncated spur