Geology, Vol. 1 [of 3] : $b Geologic processes and their resultsSalisbury, Rollin D.
Science
Geology, Vol. 1 [of 3] : $b Geologic processes and their results
Salisbury, Rollin D.
Geology
[Illustration: +Fig.+ 277.—End of a glacier a few miles west of
Kaslo on Lake Kootenai, B. C. A lodge moraine from which the ice has
withdrawn, giving it the appearance of a push moraine. It is possible
that the lodge moraine material has been pushed up a little by
re-advance of the ice. (Atwood.)]
=The ground moraine.=—When a glacier disappears by melting, all its
débris is deposited. All the drift deposited beneath the advancing
ice and all deposited from the base of the ice during its dissolution
constitutes the _ground moraine_. The thickness of the ground moraine
is notably unequal. In general, it is thicker toward the terminus of
the glacier and thinner toward its source, but considerable portions of
a glacier’s bed are often left without débris when the ice melts. In
general, the terminal moraine is not only thicker, but more irregularly
disposed than the ground moraine.
=The lateral moraines.=—The surface lateral moraines of valley glaciers
are let down on the surface beneath when the ice melts out from under
them; but the lateral moraines in a valley from which the ice has
melted are not merely the lateral moraines which were on the glacier
at a given time. They are often far more massive than any which ever
existed on the ice itself at any one time (Fig. 278). As a glacier
retreats, its lateral moraine material is more or less bunched. Thus if
the ice advances 200 feet while its end is being melted back 300 feet,
the lateral moraines on the 300 feet melted are concentrated into 100
feet, as they are delivered on to the land by the melting of the ice
from beneath. If the retreat of the end of a glacier be very slow, the
bunching may be great. But even this cannot explain the massiveness of
some lateral moraines. Furthermore, the materials of which many lateral
moraines are composed are nearly as well worn as those of the ground
moraine. The massive lateral moraines of which this is true are often
made up chiefly of the drift accumulated beneath the lateral margins
of the glaciers. This accumulation is the result of the lateral motion
of the ice from center to side. Such sublateral accumulations are akin
to terminal moraines. Some of the lateral moraines of ancient valley
glaciers, such as those of the Uinta, Wasatch, and Bighorn mountains
are several hundred feet high, and in one case about 1000 feet. In
northern Italy lateral moraines are said to be 1500 to 2000 feet
high.[132]
[Illustration: +Fig.+ 278.—A lateral moraine from which the ice has
retreated. Bighorn Mountains, Wyo. (Blackwelder.)]
[Illustration: +Fig.+ 279.—Glacial drift, coarse and fine together.
(Geol. Surv. of N. J.)]
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