moraine
/məˈreɪn
/noun Geology
A mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier, typically as ridges at its edges or extremity.It is also likely that mass movement is much more common during periods when glaciers are retreating; large moraines and steep valley sides are then unstable because they are no longer supported by the glacier....
- A moraine is the ground up debris consisting of everything from giant boulders to fine rock powder which a glacier leaves behind.
- Boulder clay, the most widespread deposit, represents the ground moraine of the ice sheet.
Derivatives
morainal
/ adjective ...- A medial moraine is a strip of morainal debris in the middle of glacier ice which marks where two glaciers come together.
- Lloyd Point stands at the western end of a mile long sand and gravel bar, Lloyd Point Beach, that projects west from the morainal deposits that form the bulk of the park.
- They occur mostly on low gently sloping and flat lands adjacent to morainal hills and they support the richest, tallest forests in the park.
morainic
/ adjective ...- The presence of morainic terrains near the lake makes it possible to produce a high quality wine.
- Latvia's undulating landscape is dominated by morainic hills and meltwater deposits dating back to the latest glacial epoch.
- The second method digs or drills tunnels through the morainic dams or surrounding rock; the tunnels are left open to prevent the glacier lakes from forming in the future.
Origin
Late 18th century: from French, from Italian dialect morena, from French dialect morre 'snout'; related to morion1.