| Term: | Roche moutonnee |
| Definition: |
A roche moutonnee is a small asymetrically-shaped hill formed by glacial erosion. The upper sides are rounded and smoothed and the lower sides are rough and broken due to quarrying by the glacier. Bedrock knobs are commonly polished on their upper side and are quarried and broken on the lower. These rounded knobs are formed in all sizes. Observers of the 1700s thought they resembled fashionable wavy wigs of their day and named the rouches moutonnees.
An elongated, rounded, asymmetrical, bedrock knob produced by glacier erosion. It has a gentle slope on its up-glacier side and a steep- to vertical-face on the down-glacier side. A rocky hillock with a gently inclined, smooth up-valley facing slope resulting from glacial abrasion, and a steep, rough down-valley facing slope resulting from glacial plucking. Swisseduc A feature of glacial erosion that resembles an asymmetrical rock mound. It is smooth and gently sloping on the side of ice advance. The lee-side of this feature is steep and jagged. PhysicalGeography GCW |