Arete (landform)

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This article is about a glacial landform. See Arete for other meanings.

Image:The Garden Wall.jpg

An arête is a thin, almost knife-like, ridge of rock which is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. The arete is the thin ridge of rock that is left separating the two valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode towards one another, although frequently this results in a saddle-shaped pass, called a col. 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.

Notable examples of arêtes include:

• Clouds Rest, in the Sierra Nevada, USA
• Sierra Nevada and Sierra Morena, Spain
• The Garden Wall, in Glacier National Park (US) (image to right)

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