Write in detail about the depositional features formed by glaciers.
Write in detail about the depositional features formed by glaciers.
1 Answers
Following are the depositional features formed by glaciers.
Drumlin:
1. Coarse Material that moves with glaciers gets deposited at different places in the form of heaps.
2. They appear to have egg like shape. Such heaps are called drumlins.
3. At times, large number of drumlins get deposited in an area. From a higher elevation, it- appears like a basket of eggs. It is also referred to as ‘basket of eggs topography’.
Eskers:
When the coarse material, moving with the glaciers is deposited in linear and zigzag manner, it is called an esker.
Erratic rock:
1. In the areas under the influence of glaciers generally at high latitudes, huge rock pieces are found to have been deposited in the area where the local rocks are of different formation.
2. Such rock appears as erratic ones to the area in which they are deposited.
3. These can be considered as guest rocks.
Moraines:
1. Generally, glaciers deposit load of sediments along the side and front of the ice. These deposits are called moraines.
2. The moraines deposited at the sides of the wall are called lateral moraines.
3. At the toe or foot of the glacier, sediment is deposited in a jumbled heap of all grain sizes forming a curved depositional ridge called end moraines.
4. End moraines, that mark the farthest advance of a glacier called terminal moraines.
5. When two tributary glaciers join together, their lateral moraines merge underneath to form medial moraines.