Hanging Valley

• Snow gathers in a north facing hollow and compacts to ice, creating a glacier.
• Plucking happens which is when ice freezes to rocks, the glacier moves and plucks the rocks out, steepening the back wall.
• Abrasion happens which is when rocks stuck in the ice scrape the hollow, grinding it like sandpaper, deepening it.
• Frost shattering happens which is when water gets into cracks in the rocks, freezes, expands and breaks the rock.
• The glacier moves downhill due to gravity following existing V-shaped valleys
• Former interlocking spurs may be cut off by the glacier as it flows downhill leaving truncated spurs and steep valley sides
• The valley becomes wider and straighter,
• Hanging valleys have smaller, less powerful glaciers which result in a less-deep valley hanging above the main valley
• E.g. Yosemite Falls