Which process is initiated at high elevations following glacial retreat from a cirque basin that exposes fractured bedrock?

💡 Explanation

When formerly glaciated cirque basins exposes steep, fractured bedrock, permafrost thaw and saturation cause solifluction because freeze-thaw cycles mobilize the saturated soil downslope, forming solifluction lobes. Therefore lobe development results, rather than exfoliation, karst, or loess which require differing geological processes or environments.

• Which geologic outcome intensifies when an oceanic plate subducts at a steeper angle beneath a continental plate?
• Which phenomenon causes mantle upwelling beneath the overriding plate where an oceanic plate subducts at an increasing angle?
• Which outcome occurs when a meandering stream erodes laterally until encountering a resistant geological formation beneath an oxbow?
• Which modification to the Walker circulation in the Pacific Ocean initiates an El Niño event?
• Which mechanism increases flood risk downstream of a newly formed oxbow lake?
• Which risk increases within flood control channels constructed atop karst bedrock regions?