flat-iron

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flat-iron
1. A land-form of roughly triangular shape, and with one side (the dip slope) that is both steep and uniform. It is formed between two adjacent valleys that cut through a hogback ridge roughly at right angles to its trend. It is a common land-form along the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains, USA.

2. Applied to clasts that have been shaped by glacial erosion at the base of sliding ice. Typically, they show a distinctive ‘bullet’ form, with one end plucked and the other streamlined, and may vary in size from a few centimetres to many metres.

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