Periglacial refers to places in the edges of glacial areas, normally those related to past ice ages rather than those in the modern era.

Periglacial conditions in the Pleistocene created landscapes and geological conditions moulded by frost action , the repeated freezing and thawing of material over long periods of time. Around a third of the earth's land surface can be considered as having been subject to periglacial conditions.

The conditions result in a variety of ground conditions but especially those involving irregular, mixed deposits created by ice wedges , solifluction , gelifluction , frost creep and rockfalls .