Outwash fan

Glacial outwash sediment, Knud Rasmussen Glacier, Greenland.

An outwash fan is a fan-shaped body of sediments deposited by braided streams from a melting glacier. Sediment locked within the ice of the glacier, gets transported by the streams of meltwater, and deposits on the outwash plain, at the terminus of the glacier. The outwash, the sediment transported and deposited by the meltwater and that makes up the fan, is usually poorly sorted due to the short distance traveled before being deposited.

References

http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/outwash

Glaciers

Types

Anatomy

Processes

Measurements

Volcanic relations

Landforms

Erosional	Arête Cirque Cirque stairway Crag and tail Fjord Glacial horn Glacial lake Glacial striae Hanging valley Ribbon lake Roche moutonnée Tarn Tunnel valley U-valley Zungenbecken

Depositional	Drumlin Erratic block Moraine Moraine-dammed lake Pulju moraine Rogen moraine Sevetti moraine Terminal moraine Till plain Veiki moraine

Glacifluvial	Alpentor Diluvium Esker Giant current ripples Kame Kame delta Kettle hole Outwash fan Sandur Urstromtal

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