Terminal moraines mark how far a glacier once pushed downhill
As a glacier advances, it bulldozes rock and sediment to its snout; when it stalls or retreats, that rubble ridge remains as a terminal moraine — a frozen conveyor’s dumped load.
Lateral moraines line the sides, and recessional ridges step upvalley like tide marks of ice. Farmers and geologists read these piles as maps of past glacier extent.
Debris is a diary. Terminal moraines turn vanished ice into landscape history, showing how far mountain glaciers once reached into valleys now green.
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