Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive
Understanding the Glacial Landscape

Wisconsin lent its name to the most recent series of glacial advances and retreats -- the Wisconsin Glaciation lasted from about 100,000 to 10,000 years ago. Massive lobes of ice (up to two miles thick) collided here, causing tremendous pressure, friction, and buckling of the land surface. As the glacier retreated, moraines, drumlins, kames and eskers were formed. Many lakes, bogs, wetlands, and potholes are also a direct result of glacial activity.

Definitions

Drumlin: Oval teardrop-shaped hills formed under the glacial ice near the advancing front of a glacier.

Erratic: Boulders and large rocks carried by glaciers and deposited on the surface of the land after the ice melted.

Esker: A long, narrow ridge of coarse gravel deposited by a stream flowing in an ice-walled valley or tunnel in a melting glacier.

Kame: A conical-shaped hill of sand and gravel that was formed by glacial meltwater swirling into a vertical shaft in the glacier.

Kettle: A depression formed by the melting of a large block of glacial ice that was partially or completely buried. Some kettles hold water to form kettle lakes.

Moraine: Jumbled hills of unsorted, unstratified glacial debris found at the sides or front of a glacier.

Interlobate Moraine: A moraine that formed between two adjacent lobes of glacial ice.