Geology of Middlesex County

Meandering- a meandering river is a river that has many curves and bends in it, and the more meandering a river is, the older the river is.

Stratified- well sorted material.

Till- till is made up of poorly sorted material such as sand, clay, and rocks, that get dragged along the bottem of the glacier. Rolling hills are commonly found in places that have till.

Kame- a kame is a cone-shaped hill made of sand. It is created when a depression in the top of the glacier gets filled with sand and melt water. When the glacier melts, this material gets lowered to the ground and forms a hill.

Esker- and esker is a long stratified ridge made of sand and gravel. They're created when a tunnel in the glacier gets filled up with sediment, so when the glacier melts or leaves, a long line of stratified sediment is left behind. Roads are often built on eskers.

Drumlin- a drumlin is a hill, where one side is long and shallow, and the other is short and steep. As the glacier moves, it pushes sediment in front of it, until the glacier flows over the sediment, causing the sediment to form a hill where the shallow side points to the way the glacier was flowing.

Kettle Lake- kettle lakes are lakes in a depression in the ground, created when a chunk of ice breaks off the glacier and gets buried in the ground. When the ice melts, it causes a depression in the land and often forms a lake, such as Walden Pond. Kames can often be found in places of outwash from kettle lakes.

Erratic- an erratic is a boulder that dropped off a glacier's snout or when it melts. They are noticable because they are most likely a different kind of rock than the bedrock or as any boulder on soft sediment.

Glacial Lake- a glacial lake is formed when a retreating glacier leaves behind large deposits of ice in between the hollows of drumlins and hills. When the ice age ends, these chunks of ice melt and create lakes.