Abrasion – Erosion caused by rocks and boulders in the base of a moving glacier scraping the rocks below

(Pronounced uh-brey-zhuhn)

To remember the meaning of the term Abrasion, use the following mnemonic:

You could hear the brays from (abrasion) the donkey as she wore down and ground down the corn.

As a glacier moves slowly downhill it carries with it rocks that have been frozen to its base and sides. These accumulated rocks scrape the earth beneath like sandpaper, gouging shapes into the landscape over a period of many years. This is the process we refer to as abrasion.

You could say that a glacier moulds itself to the shape of the land, and also moulds the land as it inches down the valley.

NOTE: The typical movement of a glacier is about 25cm (10 inches) per day.