Terminal Moraines

This is just a brief musing on the impact of glaciers on terrain.  I won't go getting into the science of it too much, but glaciers can create or alter terrain features in interesting ways - in addition to being terrain features in their own right.  One of the features they leave behind after they retreat are terminal moraines.

Moraines are masses of rock that the glaciers convey to their edge.  The rocks vary in size, all the way down to the size of gravel and sand, and they accumulate.  When the glaciers retreat, the accumulation that is left behind forms a hill or ridge.

On an otherwise relatively flat landscape, such a hill or ridge could stand out.  It need not be uniform, especially after erosion may have redistributed it.  So you can get irregular or lumpy ridges.  Or a collection of hills.  Or, if moraine was left in what is now a lake or sea, islands.  Many of the islands in Long Island Sound are the remnants of the terminal moraines from the last glacial maximum.  Some are not though, the Thimble Islands for example being the remnants of rocky hills that were partially ground away by glaciers.