Wisconsin Glaciation Research Paper

Wisconsin Glaciation of Minnesota

Glaciers are massive chunks of ice that float in the sea or on land that move incredibly slowly. These ice globs are so large that they have the power to shape and carve land over long periods of time, a process called abrasion, and often taking hundreds to thousands of years. Currently, most glaciers are found in Antarctica and Greenland. This paper will explore a specific glaciation period called the Wisconsin Glaciation and the effects it had on Minnesota. The last glacial advance was 75,000 years ago, and the last glacial maximum, or when glaciers were at their greatest extension, was 14,000 years ago. However, our glacier the Laurentide ice sheet didn’t completely melt in Minnesota for another 3,000
Till can be a range of sizes, from small bits of clay to large boulders, transported by ice, and often not sorted into clear layers. Outwash is similar to till, however it is mainly sand and gravel and is deposited and worked by water, not ice. Outwash is also sorted into distinct layers, or stratified drift, unlike till. When glaciers retreat, they often leave behind outwash and till, which in turn can form landforms. Through the power of glaciers, over thousands of years, they usually remarkably reshape the landscape and add features such as cirques and fjords. Drumlins are results of glacial erosion more commonly found in Minnesota. Drumlins are elongated spoon-shaped hills that formed under moving glacial ice. The Wadena drumlin field formed from the Wadena lobe and can be found in Wadena, Minnesota. Terminal moraines are when the sediments that a glacier has picked up deposit at the edge of a glacial advance. In Rockville, MN sediment from the Superior, Des Moines, and Rainy Lobe that make a terminal moraine that yellow-red outwash. Gravel, sand, and clay deposited by meltwater streams and reworked past the original maximum of the glaciers are called outwash plains. A mix of outwash plains and moraines can be found in of outwash plains and moraines can be found in the Pine Moraines and Outwash Plains Subsection in northern Minnesota. These plains are surrounded by black spruce, tamarack, and white cedar that grow in poorly drained soils. Finally, in Burnsville, MN, a town that sits on the Owatonna Moraine, you’ll find a large granite rock unlike any others in the area. This rock is an example of a glacial erratic, a rock that differs in size and composition from other rocks in the area, meaning that it must have been carried by a glacier. Glacial erratics weren’t the