page_title: Tarn (lake)
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Tarn (lake) / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Verdi Leak in The Ruby Mountains
context_page_description: A tarn is a proglacial mountain lake, pond or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn.
context_section_description: The word is derived from the Old Norse word tjörn meaning pond. In parts of Northern England - predominantly Cumbria but also areas of North Lancashire and North Yorkshire - 'tarn' is widely used as the name for small lakes or ponds, regardless of their location and origin (e.g. Talkin Tarn, Urswick Tarn, Malham Tarn). Similarly, in Scandinavian languages, a tjern or tjärn, tärn or tjørn is a small natural lake, often in a forest or with vegetation closely surrounding it or growing into the tarn.
  The specific technical use for a body of water in a glacial corrie comes from high number of tarns found in corries in the Lake District, an upland area in Cumbria. Nonetheless, there are many more bodies of water called 'tarn' in the Lake District than actually fit this technical use.
caption: Verdi Lake in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada
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