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How do kames form as stagnant glacier ice melts?
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glacial landform
Eskers,
or narrow
ridges of
gravel and sand left by a retreating glacier,
wind through western
Nunavut, Canada, near the Thelon River.
A kame is a moundlike hill composed of poorly sorted sand and gravel that forms through the action of glacial meltwater.1
When streams flow over the terminus of a glacier, they deposit stratified driftâsediment sorted by waterâinto channels or depressions located on the surface of the ice. As the stagnant glacier ice eventually melts away, these accumulations of ice-contact stratified drift are no longer supported by the ice mass. Consequently, the deposits slump and partially collapse, leaving behind isolated, mound-shaped hills of bedded sand and gravel known as kames.21
In some instances, similar processes occur between the lateral margin of a glacier and a valley wall, resulting in the formation of a kame terrace.12