What does ice erosion primarily involve?

Ice erosion primarily involves the movement of glaciers, which are massive bodies of ice that slide down mountains and across land. As they move, glaciers possess the ability to pick up and transport various materials, including pieces of rock, sediment, and soil along their path. This process effectively scours and shapes the landscape, leading to distinctive geological features such as valleys and moraines.

The action of a glacier is driven by gravity, which causes it to flow and exert pressure on the underlying bedrock. As the ice moves, it can fracture and incorporate the rock fragments into its mass, causing erosion at both the surface and subsurface levels. This continual movement is a fundamental aspect of glacial geology and is responsible for much of the reshaping of terrestrial topography that we observe in glacial regions.

Other processes related to ice and weather, such as wind moving snowflakes, freezing rain causing damage, or lakes freezing and thawing, do not primarily contribute to the formation of erosion in the same way that glaciers do. While they may involve ice or freezing, they do not have the same impact on the geological alteration of landscapes as glacier-induced erosion.