Depositional landforms

• Glaciers move very slowly. As they move, they transport material from one place to another:

  • As freeze-thaw weathering occurs along the edge of the glacier pieces of rock, which break off larger rocks, fall onto the glacier and are transported.
  • Rocks plucked from the bottom and sides of the glacier are moved downhill with the ice.
  • Bulldozing is when rocks and debris, found in front of the glacier, are pushed downhill by the sheer force of the moving ice.
  • Rotational slip is the circular movement of the ice in the corrie.
• Any material carried or moved by a glacier is called moraine.
• • Lateral moraine - material deposited along both sides of the glacier. This moraine is usually made up of weathered material that has fallen from the valley sides above the glacier.
• • Medial moraine - material deposited in the middle of the glacier. This is caused by the lateral moraines of two glaciers when they meet.
• • Terminal moraine - material deposited at the end of the glacier.
• The name given to all material deposited by a glacier is called glacial till or boulder clay.
• • Erratics - these are rocks that have been deposited by the glacier. They are usually made of a rock type that would not be found in that area. This suggests that erratics can be carried a long way from an area of different geology.
• • Drumlins - glaciers can move moraine around in unusual ways which produce interesting features. Drumlins are mounds of deposited moraine. They have a steep side and a sloping side. They can be small or large. They are sometimes described as having a 'basket of eggs' topography because of the unusual landscape they create.
• Labelled Diagram

  A) Stoss end

  B) lee slope

  C) ice flow

  D) length

  E) lowest point

  F) middle point

  G) highest point

  
• Moraine - A deposit of material that is left behind when a glacier melts and retreats.
• A push moraine - a moraine (a landform formed by glacial processes) that forms when the terminus advance of a lowland glacier pushes unstratified glacial sediment into a pile or linear ridge in front of it.