Which mechanism initiates the creation of a cirque on a mountainside subject to glaciation?

💡 Explanation

When a slope is subject to freeze-thaw cycles, frost wedging occurs because water enters rock fractures and expands upon freezing, exerting pressure that weakens rock, which forms basins over time where glaciers originate by accumulation of snow/ice. Therefore frost wedging is the triggering mechanism, rather than abrasion, plucking or radiation.

• Which consequence results when thermocline depth increases anomalously during an El Niño event?
• Which mechanism causes the ITCZ rainy season to shift seasonally across equatorial Africa?
• Which mechanism dictates stream incision rates along orogenic belts during tectonic uplift?
• Which ecological outcome results when coastal upwelling is disrupted by increased surface water temperatures?
• Which primary outcome arises when Ekman transport concentrates floating plastics toward the center of an oceanic gyre system?
• Which mechanism explains why major global deserts often appear ~30° latitude from the equator?