When did the word moraine enter geology?
The word moraine entered geology in 1779 through the work of Horace Bénédict de Saussure. He borrowed the term from French sources that traced back to Savoyard Italian words for a mound of earth.
Questions about Moraine
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is glacial till and how does it form moraines?
Glacial till contains unconsolidated debris ranging from boulders down to clayey flour particles. A groundmass of finely divided material binds larger rocks together in what is often called boulder clay, creating landforms that vary from flat sheets to irregular hills across former glaciated regions.
Where are lateral moraines found and how high do they rise?
Lateral moraines rise up to 100 meters above valley floors along sides of glaciers like those near Lake Louise in Alberta. They can extend thousands of meters long while maintaining slopes steeper than 80 degrees close to the ice margin.
Who first described De Geer moraines and when was this discovery made?
Gerard De Geer first described these features in 1889 after studying formations beneath ice sheets. The Kvarken area contains very high densities of these ridges formed from crevasses underneath moving ice masses.
How wide is the medial ridge on the Kaskawulsh Glacier?
The Kaskawulsh Glacier in Yukon's Kluane National Park displays a medial ridge reaching 1 kilometer in width. Medial moraines run down center lines of valleys where two glaciers merge their edge debris together.