Landforms of Glacial Deposition

Definition

Glacial erosion occurs in the upper, dominantly accumulation area whereas farther down near the terminus the ice produces areas and landforms of deposition. This entry describes some of the common depositional landforms under one umbrella. For detailed description of Jökulhlaups, Moraine, and Till, please see the respective entries Hydrology of Jökulhlaups ; Moraine ; Till in this Encyclopedia.

Landforms produced by deposition of glacier materials are mainly differentiated on the basis of whether or not they are primarily ice contact or meltwater in origin. Ice contact generally means that the landform is composed dominantly of unsorted, unstratified tills, which are generally mixtures of all clast sizes from clay, silt, and sand, to cobbles and boulders. Till deposits form as lodgement tills through the pressure of overlying ice that consolidates them and plasters them onto the substrate beneath; the under-melt and over-melt ablation tillsthat melt out both beneath and...