Meaning of the "cirque"
If you have been hiking a lot or even just beginning, you often find that trail guides and books use the word "cirque" when describing a location. A cirque, (pronounced serk), is a steep, bowl-shaped basin located typically in high alpine regions that have seen extensive glaciation in the past. The word cirque comes from a latin root word meaning "circle, or ring," as cirque valleys are often shaped like round amphitheaters.
A cirque is the location of the "headwaters" or start of a glacier, and is where the accumulation of the ice and snow that feeds a glacier occurs. Often, cirques are filled with debris from weathering processes, and sometimes will have small, light to dark blue lakes at their base known as Tarns. Much like a river, glaciers begin from a headwater and "flow" down the canyon, carving the distinct U-shaped valley as they go which is found in many mountain ranges across the world.
A cirque is the location of the "headwaters" or start of a glacier, and is where the accumulation of the ice and snow that feeds a glacier occurs. Often, cirques are filled with debris from weathering processes, and sometimes will have small, light to dark blue lakes at their base known as Tarns. Much like a river, glaciers begin from a headwater and "flow" down the canyon, carving the distinct U-shaped valley as they go which is found in many mountain ranges across the world.
- Here, the small Mount Timpanogos Glacier in Utah sits inside a small cirque. Emerald Lake, (which is not visible but directly below the glacier), is a small tarn or "preglacial lake" formed from the glacial processes. (Photo by Sean Hutchings, © 2014).
-Snow covered cirques in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado. (Photo by Sean Hutchings, © 2015)
- The Lone Peak cirque as viewed from Suncrest in Draper, Utah. Though difficult to tell, the cirque forms an amphitheater with the peak at the center. (Photo by Sean Hutchings, © 2015).