Glacial till - an unsorted, unstratified mixture of fine and coarse rock debris deposited by a glacier. As glaciers melt, their remaining load of rocks is distributed in several ways. Rocks may be dro
pped in place by the melting ice; they may be rolled to the ice margins, or they may be deposited by meltwater streams. Collectively, these deposits are called 'glacial drift'. 'Till' refers to the debris deposited directly by the glacier. Rock debris rolls off the glacier edges and builds piles of loose unconsolidated rocks called 'glacier moraine'. 'Lateral moraines' form along the side of a glacier and curl into a 'terminal moraine' at the glacier's downvalley end. Drift and moraines are valuable to geologists because they outline the boundaries of past glaciations.
A glaciated valley or fjord (q.v.), often characterised by steep sides and a flat bottom, with multiple basins, resulting primarily from erosion by strongly channelled ice.
Valley that was influenced by the presence of glaciers. The cross-section of such valleys tends to be U-shaped because of glacial erosion. Similar to glacial trough.
1.Alteration of any part of the earth's surface by passage of a glacier, chiefly by glacial erosion or deposition; distinguish from glacierization. 2.As used in many texts, particularly with respect t
o the ice ages, same as glacierization, for example, "Pleistocene glaciation." 3.The transformation of cloud particles from supercooled water drops to ice crystals. Thus, a cumulonimbus cloud is said to have a glaciated upper portion.
In any small glacierized region, the average of the elevations of the highest unglacierized peak and the lowest glacierized peak. The glaciation level has been used as a regional-scale proxy for the s
teady-state ELA, although a correction is required for this purpose because the glaciation level is known to be systematically higher by about 200 m. See mid-range altitude.