Article
Article
Fjord
Article By:
Flint, Richard F. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Last reviewed:April 2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.257900
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A troughlike glaciated valley recognized as a narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs or steep slopes. It differs from other glaciated valleys only in the fact of submergence (Fig. 1). The floors of many fjords are elongate basins excavated in bedrock, and in consequence are shallower at the fjord mouths than in the inland direction. The seaward rims of such basins represent lessening of glacial erosion at the coastline, where the former glacier ceased to be confined by valley walls and could spread laterally. Some rims are heightened by glacial drift deposited upon them in the form of an end moraine. See also: Estuarine oceanography; Glacial geology and landforms; Glaciology
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