A Corrie:

A corrie (also called a cirque or cwm) starts as a snow patch on a cold mountain side. The
temperatures must be low enough to allow the snow to remain all year round. Under these
conditions snow can accumulate and the snow patch will grow in size and depth each year.
Due to temperature changes and pressure, the snow becomes altered to ice, and when
sufficient ice has accumulated it will begin to move downhill under the influence of gravity.
In the large snow patch erosion occurs above and below the surface of the ice.

Above the surface freeze-thaw will be an important process. It weakens and dislodges rock
material from the corrie walls, helping to steepen them and cut them backwards into the
mountain side.

Below the ice there is a scouring action produced by the rotational movement of the ice as it
moves down hill, and abrasion from the rock debris held in the ice. The rocks embedded in
the ice scrape away at the underlying surface, slowly producing a curved hollow. Most of the
erosion occurs in the centre of the ice, with less at the back, sides and front. This causes a
deepening of the hollow in which the snow has accumulated a steepening of the walls behind
and to its sides.

In areas where glaciation is not occurring now, corries are important evidence of past glacial
activity. They appear as armchair shaped gouges out of mountain sides, frequently with a
small lake, or tarn.

Terminal Moraine:

Debris dropped at the front of a glacier as known the ice melts forms a terminal moraine.
Other mounds of sand and gravel which were derived from the ice along its margins during
pauses in its retreat, and lie parallel to the ice-front. Good examples are in north Yorkshire,
South Wales, lake district.

Lateral moraine:

A glacier carries along boulders and stone of all sizes, which fall onto its surface from the
valley walls on either side; superficial debris of this kind is called moraine. And when it lies
in two marginal bands it called lateral moraine.

An Esker:

A long and narrow ridge of sand and glacial debris, which is raised above the surrounding
land. It was once the bed of a stream that flowed beneath a glacier, and was left behind after
the ice melted.

Truncated spur:

Spurs that projecting into the original river valley are cut short, their lower ends being
destroyed by the moving ice. They may be cut back right to the edges of the new valley, or
still project slightly into the valley. This shortens the spurs, or truncates them. They are then
known as Truncated Spurs .
Hanging Valley:

Hanging valleys are often associated with valley glaciers, joining the main valley along its
sides. They are the product of different rates of erosion between the main valley and the
valleys that enter it along its sides. The floors of the tributary valleys are eroded and
deepened at a slower rate than the floor of the main valley, so the difference between the
depths of the two valleys steadily increases over time. The tributaries are left high above the
main valley, hanging on the edges, their rivers and streams entering the main valley by either
a series of small waterfalls or a single impressive fall.

A glacial erratic:

Erratics are large boulders that have been transported by glaciers, and often deposited a
considerable distance from their origin. By establishing the origins of the erratic, by
comparing its litho logy with possible originating areas, it is possible to determine the
direction of ice flow that brought it to its present location. It is unlikely to be moved many
kilometres from its original position because the glacier is small. In times of large scale
glaciation such as the last ice age, with ice sheets covering hundreds of kilometres, it was
possible for boulders to be transported over much greater distances.

A Fault:

Faults are fractures that have had displacement of the rocks along them. Throw is the vertical
component of fault displacement. Faults are described by reference to their downthrow side.
This is relative movement and may be due to the other side having moved up. Faults
commonly create zones of badly broken ground that are weaker and less stable than the
adjacent rock with implication for foundation bearing capacity.

Normal Fault and reverse fault se in pages.

A Fold:

It is frequently seen that strata in many parts of the earth’s crust have been bent or buckled in
to folds. It is necessary to make age distinction before naming a fold. If the relative ages of
the core and the envelop rock around it are not known, the terms anticline and syncline are
used.

Anticline:
An anticline is a fold structure in which the sides of the fold slope apart. Its shape is concave
downward. Technically, it is a fold with younger rocks on the outside, so this should be
called an antiform until we can confirm the relative ages of the rocks.

Deep underground, anticlines are highly desired by petroleum prospectors. The rock beds trap
rising hydrocarbon fluids, allowing oil and gas to build up in the pore space of the anticline
rocks. The largest oilfields occur in large, gentle anticlines in thick sedimentary rock
sequences.

Syncline:
A syncline is a fold structure in which the sides of the fold slope together. Its shape is
concave upward. Technically, it is a fold with younger rocks on the inside, so technically this
should be called a synform until we can confirm the relative ages of the rocks. A syncline this
well formed and large (image is several hundred meters vertically) is very unlikely to be in
overturned strata. So 99 of 100 geologists would look at this image and say, "Where is that
beautiful syncline?" The hundredth might add "—or synformal anticline." (The answer is
Ellesmere Island, in the Canadian Arctic.) Synclines can be as small as a hand specimen.

Notice that the geologic structure does not much affect the topography. That is, a syncline
does not necessarily create a valley. In very young landscapes it might, but generally how a
syncline is expressed depends on the rocks. If softer rocks are in the core of the syncline, they
will erode to form a valley, but if the inner layers are harder, erosion carves them into a peak
instead.

Mudstone:
Mudstone is the classical sedimentary rock. Mudstone is made up of tiny clay particles (less
than 0.05mm) that can’t be seen with the naked eye. These tiny particles are deposited in
quiet low-energy environments like tidal flats, lakes, and the deep sea.  When mudstone is
buried beneath many layers of sediment deposited on top, it may be compressed to form
shale, which breaks easily into thin flakes

Sandstone:

Sandy sediment, after natural compaction and cementation has gone on, is converted into a
relatively hard rock called sandstone. It has a texture of no interlocking of the component
grains, as an igneous rock, and the mineral composition is often simple. These often break the
mass into roughly rectangular blocks and are useful in quarrying.

Dykes:

When the magma rises and fills fractures or other openings in the country rocks it forms
minor intrusion. These include dykes, which are wall-like masses, steep or vertical with
approximately parallel side. It can vary in width from few centimetres to meters, but most are
not more than 3m wide. They commonly outcrop in nearly straight lines over short distance.
It has fine to medium-grained texture.

Sills:

Sills is sheet of rock whose extent is more or less horizontal, and which lie parallel to the
bedding of sedimentary rock into which they are intruded. Sills is in contrast to dykes, have
been intruded under a flat cover of roof against a vertical pressure due to the weight of the
cover.

Drumlins:

Smooth oval-shaped mounds known as Drumlins, and are formed of till. They are elongated
features that can reach a kilometer or more in length, 500m or so in width and over 50m in
height. They are composed of boulder clay or englacial debris, sometimes moulded moulded
over a roche moutonnee. The long axis of the oval is parallel to the direction taken by the ice.
Groups of the drumlins are well developed in lake district.

Bedding:
Beddings are usually the dominant fractures within sedimentary rocks. Many bedding planes
are very thin bands or partings of shale or clay between units of stronger rocks. Others are
clean breaks or joints developed tectonically along the slightest of contrast within the
deposition sequence.

Unconformities:

In many places one series of strata is seen to lie upon an older series with a surface of
separation between them. Junctions of this kind are called unconformities, some are local
extent but others can extend over a large area. The older strata were originally deposited in
horizontal layers but often they are now seen to be tilted and covered by beds that lie across
them. The upper beds are said to be unconformable in dip between the younger and older
strata.

Discontinuities:

Fault, Fold, Bedding, Joining, cleavage, Mohorovicic or Moho, Seismic,

In geology the world discontinuity is used for a surface at which seismic waves change
velocity. One of these surfaces exists at an average depth of 8kilometers.