A Glacial erratic is a piece of rock carried by glacial ice some distance from the rock outcrop from which it came. Erratics can range in size from pebbles to massive pieces such as the Okotoks (16,500 tons) and Airdrie erratics found in Alberta, Canada. They can be found mies away from their original location. Geologists identify erratics by studing the rocks surrounding the position of the erratic and the rock of the erratic itself. Image taken in June 2003 by Daniel Mayer. ... Sedimentary, volcanic, plutonic, metamorphic rock types of North America. ... Mouth of the glacier Schlatenkees near InnergschlöÃ, Austria. ... Okotoks is a town situated 18 kilometers south of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. ... Airdrie is a city in Alberta, Canada, located just north of Calgary within the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor. ... Motto: Fortis et Liber (Strong and free) Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Edmonton Largest city Calgary Lieutenant Governor Norman Kwong Premier Ralph Klein (PC) Area 661,848 km² (6th) Land 642,317 km² Water 19,531 km² (2. ...
The Foothills Erratics Train is a deposit of rocks of many sizes. These deposits stretch in a narrow belt for about 600 km (400 miles) from the Athabasca River Valley in Alberta to southwestern Alberta. Hudsons Bay Companys scow in Athabasca River, circa 1910 The Athabasca River originates from the Athabasca Glacier of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park in Alberta. ...
Geologists have suggested that landslides or rockfalls initially dropped the rocks on top of glacial ice. The glaciers continued to move, carrying the rocks with it. When the ice melted, the erratics were left in their present locations. A landslide is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes, and shallow debris flows, see flow. ...
Outlet glaciers are formed by the movement of ice from a polar ice cap, or an ice cap from mountainous regions, to the sea.
The largest glaciers are continental ice sheets, enormous masses of ice that are not affected by the landscape and extend over the entire surface, except on the margins, where they are thinnest.
The Hubbard Glacier is the longest tidewater glacier in
A glacialerratic is a piece of rock carried by glacial ice some distance from the rock outcrop from which it came.
Erratics were once considered evidence of a biblical flood, but in the 19th Century scientists gradually came to accept that erratics pointed to an ice age in Earth's past.
Cluster of erratics found high on the slopes of Red Mountain shown in the foreground; these were trapped in glacial ice and "rafted in" on the flood of Lake Lewis.