Roche Moutonne

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Roche Moutonnée
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What in the world is a roche moutonnée ?

• What language is this written in?
• What might it mean when translated?
• What landform does it describe?
• What does it have to do with glaciers?

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• Answer These are originally French words,
  meaning sheep-backed rock or fleecy rock. This
  glacially eroded landform is thought to resemble
  a grazing sheep!

Roche Moutonnee
Grazing sheep
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• Origin this is a resistant and tough outcrop of
  rock found on the floor of a U-shaped valley that
  a glacier once occupied. You can see scratches
  called striations on it, caused by moving ice.

U-shaped valley floor
Striations
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• Picture credit Nigel Williams
• www.geograph.org.uk/photo/110277
• Roche moutonnée in Nant Ffrancon
• Roche moutonnée in the Ogwen Valley. Wales is one
  of the most southerly points in the UK to have
  experienced the ice age. These glaciers carved
  out the spectacular glacial trough valleys like
  this one.

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