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Arête
Narrow ridge of rock which separates two valleys / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a glacial landform. For other uses, see Arete (disambiguation).
An arête (/əˈrɛt/ ə-RET; French: [aʁɛt])[1] is a narrow ridge of rock that separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequently this results in a saddle-shaped pass, called a col.[2] The edge is then sharpened by freeze-thaw weathering, and the slope on either side of the arête steepened through mass wasting events and the erosion of exposed, unstable rock.[3] The word arête (French: [aʁɛt]) is actually French for "edge" or "ridge"; similar features in the Alps are often described with the German equivalent term Grat.
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Where three or more cirques meet, a pyramidal peak is created.