Abstract
Glacial cirques have specific concave longitudinal profiles different from those of valley heads without glacial imprint. The degree of deepening of valley heads can be used to determine the extent of past mountain glaciation and serve as a tool in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. The aim of the present paper is to compare longitudinal profiles of glacial cirques and non-glaciated valley heads. For this purpose, we analyzed an alpine area with classic well-developed glacial cirques in the Central Alps (Austria) and a mid-mountain area of the High Sudetes (Czech Republic/Poland) with both cirques and non-glaciated valley heads. We described each valley head by c-value function fitting using longitudinal profiles obtained from detailed laser-derived digital elevation models and tested them statistically. The results show, with high accuracy of fitting, significant differences between c-values of glacial cirques and those of non-glacial valley heads. This newly presented approach could be useful for distinguishing between valley heads of fluvial origin and glacial cirques, as well as for evaluating the degree of cirque development.
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