Glacial landforms

Between Mount Corno's summit and Mount La Nuda lies the Cavone Glacial Cirque, the park's most striking and important landform molded during the Würm glacial stage. The cirque can be viewed from various vantage points but one can admire its exceptional features especially from atop the surrounding mountain peaks: the steep walls clearly outline a prominent bowl-shaped section and embrace a smooth, flat floor, which is enclosed by a gentle moraine deposit threshold.

The slopes between Mount Corno and Mount Cornaccio are characterized by other, less prominent glacial depressions.

Although currently subject to intense erosive forces, the stunning and unique arches of the ridge dominating the Silla valley head, between the Corno and Mount Gennaio, seem to have been inherited from glacial shaping processes.

Instead, the areas around Lake Cavone are characterized by the presence of moraine deposits, forming the typical crests and knolls. During the period of maximum Würmian glacial expansion (50,000 years ago), a glacial tongue in the Dardagna Valley reached down as far as Madonna dell'Acero and traces of glacial moraine deposits can be found on the plateau near the sanctuary.