Plucking (glaciation)

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Plucking, in the sense relating to glaciers, is when a glacier erodes away chunks of bedrock to be later deposited as glacial erratics. Glacial plucking exploits pre-existing fractures in the bedrock. When the ice comes into contact with a joint, the friction on the ice results in melting of some of the ice. This plays a key role in opening and creating new fractures but has only provided small segments of loose material. This is then followed by the entrainment of the loosened rock by the ice. During the process of entrainment, loose rock material is frozen onto the base of the glacier and incorporated into the glacial ice. Plucking is also known as quarrying.

Plucking Animation

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Last updated on Wednesday February 20, 2008 at 07:00:59 PST (GMT -0800)
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