Final answer:
Valley glaciers are responsible for the formation of distinct features such as cirques, U-shaped valleys, and aretes. These formations arise from the focused erosive power of ice moving through mountainous terrain, carving and sculpting the landscape as it flows. Continental glaciers, being larger and less focused, do not typically create such sharp and intricate features.
Step-by-step explanation:
The three features that are formed by valley glacier erosion are A) Cirques, U-shaped valleys, and aretes. These features form in different ways:
- Cirques are bowl-shaped depressions that form at the head of a glacial valley, usually at the base of a mountain slope. They occur as a result of glacial erosion caused by a glacier's weight and movement.
- U-shaped valleys are formed as glaciers with immense weight and erosive power move down mountain valleys, carving the typical U-shape profile as opposed to the V-shape caused by river erosion.
- Aretes are sharp, narrow ridges that form between two cirques or glacial valleys, resulting from the erosive action of two glaciers parallel to each other.
Valley glaciers, as opposed to continental glaciers, create these features due to their movement through mountainous terrain, which allows the ice to aggressively erode the bedrock and sculpt narrow, intricate features. In contrast, continental glaciers are vast and flat, spreading out over large areas with less focused erosive power, and thus they typically don't form as many distinctive narrow features as valley glaciers do.