Which process primarily initiates cirque formation in glaciated alpine regions with pre-existing weaknesses?

💡 Explanation

When a glacier occupies a bowl-shaped depression, frost wedging occurs because the repetitive freezing and thawing of water within bedrock joints mechanically weathers the rock, thereby enlarging the depression into a cirque. Therefore, frost wedging initiates cirque formation, rather than abrasion, deposition or chemical weathering which require distinct environmental conditions and locations.

• Which localized outcome commonly occurs due to coastal upwelling?
• Which outcome results when rapid sediment deposition significantly lowers the capacity of vegetated natural levees along a river?
• Which outcome arises because deflation lowers sediment supply?
• Which mechanism significantly increases sediment deposition rates at deep fjord basins with seasonal meltwater influx?
• Which outcome occurs when permafrost thaw increases rates of pedogenesis?
• Which outcome occurs when prolonged winds erode desert sandstone?