Everything about Ar Te totally explained
» This article is about a glacial landform. See Arete for other meanings.
An
arête is a thin, almost knife-like, ridge of
rock which is typically formed when two
glaciers erode parallel
U-shaped valleys. The arête is a thin
ridge of rock that's left separating the two valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial
cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequently this results in a saddle-shaped pass, called a
col. The edge is then sharpened by
freeze-thaw weathering. The word "arête" is actually
French for
fishbone; similar features in the Alps are described with the
German equivalent term
Grat or
Kamm (
comb).
Where three or more cirques meet, then a
glacial horn or a
pyramidal peak is created.
Cleaver
A
cleaver is a type of arête that separates a unified flow of glacial
ice from its uphill side into two glaciers flanking, and flowing parallel to, the ridge.
Cleaver gets its name from the way it resembles a meat cleaver slicing meat into two parts. A cleaver may be thought of as analogous to an
island in a
river. A common situation has the two flanking glaciers melting to their respective ends before their courses can bring them back together; the exceedingly rare analogy is a situation of the two branches of a river drying up, before the downstream tip of the island, by evaporation or absorption into the ground.
The location of a cleaver is often an important factor in the choice among routes for glacier flow. For example, following a cleaver up or down a mountain may avoid travelling on or under an unstable glacial, snow, or rock area. This is usually the case on those summer routes to the summit whose lower portions are on the south face of
Mount Rainier: climbers traverse the "flats" of
Ingraham Glacier, but ascend
Disappointment Cleaver and follow its ridgeline rather than ascending the
headwall either of that glacier or (on the other side of the cleaver) of
Emmons Glacier.
Examples
Notable examples of arêtes include:
- Knife Edge, on Mount Katahdin, Maine, USA
- Clouds Rest, in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA
- The Minarets, in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA
- The Garden Wall, in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA (image to right)
Crib Goch, in Snowdonia National Park, Wales
Striding Edge in the English Lake District
The Catwalk, in the Olympic National Park, Washington, USAFurther Information
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