HANGING VALLEYS

Hanging valleys can be created when smaller tributary glaciers join the main ice sheet. Since the main glacier is larger and heavier than the tributary one(s), the main glacier will erode more deeply into its valley than will the tributary into its own valley. After the ice melts, the tributary valley will be left hanging part of the way up the wall of the larger canyon that it intersects. Many waterfalls in the high Sierras, including well-known ones at Yosemite National Park, occur at the juncture of a hanging valley with a larger canyon.