A drumlin , from the Irish word droimnín ("little ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine . Assemblages of drumlins are referred to as fields or swarms; they can create a landscape which is often described as having a 'basket of eggs topography'.
43-510: Drumlins occur in various shapes and sizes, including symmetrical (about the long axis), spindle, parabolic forms, and transverse asymmetrical forms. Generally, they are elongated, oval-shaped hills, with a long axis parallel to the orientation of ice flow and with an up-ice (stoss) face that is generally steeper than the down-ice (lee) face. Drumlins are typically between 250 and 1,000 m (820 and 3,280 ft) long and between 120 and 300 m (390 and 980 ft) wide. Drumlins generally have
86-515: A cover of till. Interpreting the glacial history of landforms can be difficult due to the tendency of overprinting landforms on top of each other. As a glacier melts, large amounts of till are eroded and become a source of sediments for reworked glacial drift deposits. These include glaciofluvial deposits , such as outwash in sandurs , and as glaciolacustrine and glaciomarine deposits, such as varves (annual layers) in any proglacial lakes which may form. Erosion of till may take place even in
129-521: A drumlin as it is repositioned and deposited. A hypothesis that catastrophic sub-glacial floods form drumlins by deposition or erosion challenges conventional explanations for drumlins. It includes deposition of glaciofluvial sediment in cavities scoured into a glacier bed by subglacial meltwater, and remnant ridges left behind by erosion of soft sediment or hard rock by turbulent meltwater. This hypothesis requires huge, subglacial meltwater floods, each of which would raise sea level by tens of centimeters in
172-484: A few weeks. Studies of erosional forms in bedrock at French River, Ontario, Canada, provide evidence for such floods. The recent retreat of a marginal outlet glacier of Hofsjökull in Iceland exposed a drumlin field with more than 50 drumlins ranging from 90 to 320 m (300–1,050 ft) in length, 30 to 105 m (100–340 ft) in width, and 5 to 10 m (16–33 ft) in height. These formed through
215-466: A higher water content behave more fluidly, and thus are more susceptible to flow. There are three main types of flows, which are listed below. In cases where till has been indurated or lithified by subsequent burial into solid rock, it is known as the sedimentary rock tillite . Matching beds of ancient tillites on opposite sides of the south Atlantic Ocean provided early evidence for continental drift . The same tillites also provide some support to
258-461: A length to width ratio of between 1.7 and 4.1 and it has been suggested that this ratio can indicate the velocity of the glacier. That is, since ice flows in laminar flow, the resistance to flow is frictional and depends on area of contact; thus, a more elongated drumlin would indicate a lower velocity and a shorter one would indicate a higher velocity. Drumlins and drumlin swarms are glacial landforms composed primarily of glacial till . They form near
301-550: A progression of subglacial depositional and erosional processes, with each horizontal till bed within the drumlin created by an individual surge of the glacier. The above theory for the formation of these Icelandic drumlins best explains one type of drumlin. However, it does not provide a unifying explanation of all drumlins. For example, drumlin fields including drumlins composed entirely of hard bedrock cannot be explained by deposition and erosion of unconsolidated beds. Furthermore, hairpin scours around many drumlins are best explained by
344-399: A stereonet, scientists are able to see if there is a correlation between each clast and the overall orientation of the drumlin: the more similar in orientation and dip of the clasts throughout the drumlin, the more likely it is that they had been deposited during the formation process. If the opposite is true, and there doesn't seem to be a link between the drumlin and the till, it suggests that
387-400: Is unsorted glacial sediment . Till is derived from the erosion and entrainment of material by the moving ice of a glacier . It is deposited some distance down-ice to form terminal , lateral , medial and ground moraines . Till is classified into primary deposits, laid down directly by glaciers, and secondary deposits, reworked by fluvial transport and other processes. Till
430-510: Is a form of glacial drift , which is rock material transported by a glacier and deposited directly from the ice or from running water emerging from the ice. It is distinguished from other forms of drift in that it is deposited directly by glaciers without being reworked by meltwater. Till is characteristically unsorted and unstratified , and is not usually consolidated . Most till consists predominantly of clay, silt , and sand , but with pebbles, cobbles, and boulders scattered through
473-439: Is close to 25 km (6.0 cu mi) of ice. Hofsjökull has been modelled to lose all its ice in about 200 years from studies using data between 1980 and 2005. Run off into the draining rivers is modelled to increase by about 50% by 2100 before decreasing due to diminishing area of the ice caps. The subglacial volcano is a central volcano with a caldera . Beyond the central volcano are fissure systems which include to
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#1732895109982516-417: Is likely eroded from bedrock rather than being created by glacial processes. The sediments carried by a glacier will eventually be deposited some distance down-ice from its source. This takes place in the ablation zone , which is the part of the glacier where the rate of ablation (removal of ice by evaporation, melting, or other processes) exceeds the rate of accumulation of new ice from snowfall. As ice
559-414: Is parallel to the direction of movement of the glacier at the time of formation. Inspection of aerial photos of these fields reveals glacier's progress through the landscape. The Múlajökull drumlins of Hofsjökull are also arrayed in a splayed fan distribution around an arc of 180°. This field surrounds the current lobe of the glacier and provide a view into the past, showing the previous extent and motion of
602-705: Is removed, debris are left behind as till. The deposition of glacial till is not uniform, and a single till plain can contain a wide variety of different types of tills due to the various erosional mechanisms and location of till with respect to the transporting glacier. The different types of till can be categorized between subglacial (beneath) and supraglacial (surface) deposits. Subglacial deposits include lodgement, subglacial meltout, and deformation tills. Supraglacial deposits include supraglacial meltout and flow till. Supraglacial deposits and landforms are widespread in areas of glacial downwasting (vertical thinning of glaciers, as opposed to ice-retreat. They typically sit at
645-501: Is the source of several rivers including the Þjórsá , Iceland's longest river. While all ice caps in Iceland have been losing volume since 1995, due to high precipitation in 2015 and low ablation during the previous cool summer, the Hofsjökull ice cap increased in mass, the first time in 20 years this had happened. Between 1989 and 2015, even allowing for that last years increase, the icecap had lost about 12% of its 1989 volume which
688-731: The Alps , in the Republic of Ireland ( County Leitrim , County Monaghan , County Mayo and County Cavan ), in Northern Ireland ( County Fermanagh , County Armagh , and in particular County Down ), Germany, Hindsholm in Denmark, Finland and Greenland . The majority of drumlins observed in North America were formed during the Wisconsin glaciation . The largest drumlin fields in the world formed beneath
731-470: The Last Glacial Period . Recently formed drumlins often incorporate a thin "A" soil horizon (often referred to as "topsoil" which accumulated after formation) and a thin "Bw" horizon (commonly referred to as " subsoil "). The "C" horizon, which shows little evidence of being affected by soil forming processes (weathering), is close to the surface, and may be at the surface on an eroded drumlin. Below
774-764: The Laurentide Ice Sheet and are found in Canada — Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, northern Saskatchewan, northern Manitoba, northern Ontario and northern Quebec. Drumlins occur in every Canadian province and territory. Clusters of thousands of drumlins are found in: In the United States , drumlins are common in: Drumlins are found at Tiksi , Sakha Republic , Russia. Extensive drumlin fields are found in Patagonia . A major drumlin field extends on both sides of
817-548: The Precambrian Snowball Earth glaciation event hypothesis. Tills sometimes contain placer deposits of valuable minerals such as gold. Diamonds have been found in glacial till in the north-central United States and in Canada. Till prospecting is a method of prospecting in which tills are sampled over a wide area to determine if they contain valuable minerals, such as gold, uranium, silver, nickel, or diamonds, and
860-546: The Strait of Magellan covering the surroundings of Punta Arenas' Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Airport , Isabel Island and an area south of Gente Grande Bay in Tierra del Fuego Island . Land areas around Beagle Channel host also drumlin fields; for example Gable Island and northern Navarino Island . In 2007, drumlins were observed to be forming beneath the ice of a West Antarctic ice stream. Till Till or glacial till
903-434: The entrainment by the moving ice of previously available unconsolidated sediments. Bedrock can be eroded through the action of glacial plucking and abrasion , and the resulting clasts of various sizes will be incorporated to the glacier's bed. Glacial abrasion is the weathering of bedrock below a flowing glacier by fragmented rock on the basal layer of the glacier. The two mechanisms of glacial abrasion are striation of
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#1732895109982946-739: The C horizon the drumlin consists of multiple beds of till deposited by lodgment and bed deformation. On drumlins with longer exposure (e.g. in the Lake Ontario drumlin field in New York State) soil development is more advanced, for example with the formation of clay-enriched "Bt" horizons. Besides the Icelandic drumlins mentioned above, the literature also documents extensive drumlin fields in England, Scotland and Wales, Switzerland, Poland, Estonia ( Vooremaa ), Latvia , Sweden, around Lake Constance north of
989-428: The addition of soft sediment to a core. Thus, accretion and erosion of soft sediment by processes of subglacial deformation do not present unifying theories for all drumlins—some are composed of residual bedrock. There are two main theories of drumlin formation. The first, constructional , suggests that they form as sediment is deposited from subglacial waterways laden with till including gravel, clay, silt, and sand. As
1032-450: The bedrock by coarse grains moved by the glacier, thus gouging the rock below, and polishing of the bedrock by smaller grains such as silts. Glacial plucking is the removal of large blocks from the bed of a glacier. Much of the silt in till is produced by glacial grinding, and the longer the till remains at the ice-bedrock interface, the more thoroughly it is crushed. However, the crushing process appears to stop with fine silt. Clay in till
1075-498: The clasts dipping upstream. Though till is generally unstratified, till high in clay may show lamination due to compaction under the weight of overlying ice. Till may also contain lenses of sand or gravel , indicating minor and local reworking by water transitional to non-till glacial drift. The term till comes from an old Scottish name for coarse, rocky soil. It was first used to describe primary glacial deposits by Archibald Geikie in 1863. Early researchers tended to prefer
1118-413: The difficulties in accurately classifying different tills, which are often based on inferences of the physical setting of the till rather than detailed analysis of the till fabric or particle size. Subglacial lodgement tills are deposits beneath the glacier that are forced, or "lodged" into the bed below. As glaciers advance or retreat, the clasts that are deposited by the ice may have a lower velocity than
1161-432: The drumlin forms, the scrape and flow of the glacier continues around it and the material deposited accumulates, the clasts align themselves with direction of flow. It is because of this process that geologists are able to determine how the drumlin formed using till fabric analysis, the study of the orientation and dip of particles within a till matrix. By examining the till particles and plotting their orientation and dip on
1204-409: The erosive action of horseshoe vortices around obstacles in a turbulent boundary layer. Semi-submerged or drowned drumlins can be observed where rising sea-levels flooded the low-lying areas in between drumlin ridges. The most notable example of this is Clew Bay in the west of Ireland , which contains hundreds of drumlin islands and islets. It was once a field of drumlins that was "drowned" following
1247-452: The flow direction indicated by the till is then used to trace the minerals back to their bedrock source. Hofsj%C3%B6kull Hofsjökull ( Icelandic : " temple glacier", Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈhɔfsˌjœːkʏtl̥] ) is the third largest ice cap in Iceland after Vatnajökull and Langjökull and covers the largest active central volcano in the country, which has
1290-410: The glacier. Many of the clasts are faceted, striated, or polished, all signs of glacial abrasion . The sand and silt grains are typically angular to subangular rather than rounded. It has been known since the careful statistic work by geologist Chauncey D. Holmes in 1941 that elongated clasts in tills tend to align with the direction of ice flow. Clasts in till may also show slight imbrication , with
1333-411: The glacier. Since the rate of deposition is controlled by the rate of basal melting, it is worth considering the factors that contribute to melting. These can be the geothermal heat flux, frictional heat generated by sliding, ice thickness, and ice-surface temperature gradients. Subglacial deformation tills refer to the homogenization of glacial sediments that occur when the stresses and shear forces from
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1376-401: The glacier. These consist of clasts and debris that become exposed due to melting via solar radiation. These debris are either just debris that have a high relative position on the glacier, or clasts that have been transported up from the base of the glacier. Debris accumulation has a feedback-loop relationship with melting. Initially, the darker colored debris absorb more heat and thus accelerate
1419-403: The ice itself. When the friction between the clast and the bed exceeds the forces of the ice flowing above and around it, the clast will cease to move, and it will become a lodgement till. Subglacial meltout tills are tills that are deposited via the melting of the ice lobe. Clasts are transported to the base of the glacier over time, and as basal melting continues, they are slowly deposited below
1462-588: The ice. Drumlins may comprise layers of clay , silt , sand, gravel and boulders in various proportions; perhaps indicating that material was repeatedly added to a core, which may be of rock or glacial till . Alternatively, drumlins may be residual, with the landforms resulting from erosion of material between the landforms. The dilatancy of glacial till was invoked as a major factor in drumlin formation. In other cases, drumlin fields include drumlins made up entirely of hard bedrock (e.g. granite or well- lithified limestone ). These drumlins cannot be explained by
1505-443: The margin of glacial systems, and within zones of fast flow deep within ice sheets , and are commonly found with other major glacially-formed features (including tunnel valleys , eskers , scours, and exposed bedrock erosion ). Drumlins are often encountered in drumlin fields of similarly shaped, sized and oriented hills. Many Pleistocene drumlin fields are observed to occur in a fan-like distribution. The long axis of each drumlin
1548-650: The melting process. After a significant amount of melting has occurred, the thickness of the till insulates the ice sheet and slows the melting process. Supraglacial meltout tills typically end up forming moraines. Supraglacial flow tills refer to tills that are subject to a dense concentration of clasts and debris from meltout. These debris localities are then subsequently affected by ablation . Due to their unstable nature, they are subject to downslope flow, and thus named "flow till." Properties of flow tills vary, and can depend on factors such as water content, surface gradient, and debris characteristics. Generally, flow tills with
1591-470: The moving glacier rework the topography of the bed. These contain preglacial sediments (non glacial or earlier glacial sediments), which have been run over and thus deformed by meltout processes or lodgement. The constant reworking of these deposited tills leads to a highly homogenized till. Supraglacial meltout tills are similar to subglacial meltout tills. Rather than being the product of basal melting, however, supraglacial meltout tills are imposed on top of
1634-423: The other main theory of formation could be true. The second theory proposes that drumlins form by erosion of material from an unconsolidated bed. Erosion under a glacier in the immediate vicinity of a drumlin can be on the order of a meter's depth of sediment per year, depending heavily on the shear stress acting on the ground below the glacier from the weight of the glacier itself, with the eroded sediment forming
1677-513: The same name. It is situated in the west of the Highlands of Iceland and north of the mountain range Kerlingarfjöll , between the two largest glaciers of Iceland. It covers an area of 830 km (320 sq mi), with the icecap top being 1,782 metres (5,846 ft), and bottom being at about 600 m (2,000 ft). There are other summits relating to the underlying volcano with two being at 1,765 m (5,791 ft). Hofsjökull
1720-464: The subglacial environment, such as in tunnel valleys . There are various types of classifying tills: Traditionally (e.g. Dreimanis , 1988 ) a further set of divisions has been made to primary deposits, based upon the method of deposition. Van der Meer et al. 2003 have suggested that these till classifications are outdated and should instead be replaced with only one classification, that of deformation till. The reasons behind this are largely down to
1763-412: The term boulder clay for the same kind of sediments, but this has fallen into disfavor. Where it is unclear whether a poorly sorted, unconsolidated glacial deposit was deposited directly from glaciers, it is described as diamict or (when lithified ) as diamictite . Tillite is a sedimentary rock formed by lithification of till. Glacial till is mostly derived from subglacial erosion and from
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1806-491: The till. The abundance of clay demonstrates lack of reworking by turbulent flow, which otherwise would winnow the clay. Typically, the distribution of particle sizes shows two peaks (it is bimodal ) with pebbles predominating in the coarser peak. The larger clasts (rock fragments) in till typically show a diverse composition, often including rock types from outcrops hundreds of kilometers away. Some clasts may be rounded, and these are thought to be stream pebbles entrained by
1849-413: The top of the stratigraphic sediment sequence, which has a major influence on land usage. Till is deposited as the terminal moraine , along the lateral and medial moraines and in the ground moraine of a glacier, and moraine is often conflated with till in older writings. Till may also be deposited as drumlins and flutes , though some drumlins consist of a core of stratified sediments with only
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