Glaciers are large bodies of dense ice that are constantly moving due to their own weight. As glaciers advance and retreat, they leave behind several landforms including rolling hills, moraines, eskers, drumlins, and kettle lakes. Glaciers form in areas where more snow accumulates than melts over many years or centuries.

1. Glaciers

2. Glaciers
Glacier: A glacier is a body of
dense ice that is constantly
moving under its own weight.
A glacier forms where the
addition of snow is more than
the loss of snow over many
years, often centuries.

3. Glaciers
As glaciers advance and retreat, they leave
many structures:
• Rolling hills
• Moraines
• Eskers
• Drumlins
• Kettle lakes

4. Rolling Hills
Rolling hills: Eroded mountains from repeat glaciation.

5. Moraines
Moraines: Deposits of rocks and gravel left behind.

6. Eskers
Eskers: form when parts of the glacier melt. This meltwater flows in
tunnels under the ice. The melting releases sand and gravel forming
a winding river pattern.

7. Drumlins
Drumlins: are small hills with a distinctive teardrop shape.
They form when a glacier moves over moraines that had formed
earlier. The tip of the drumlin points in the direction that the glacier
was moving.

8. Kettle Lakes
Kettle lakes: Large chunks
of ice left behind form into
lakes.

9. Coulee
Coulee: forms when a very large amount of water washes across
the landscape in a short amount of time, eroding a kind of
canyon/valley.

10. Glacial Anomalies
The 16,500-tonne (18,200-
ton) boulder transported
far from its mountainous
place of origin by a
rockslide then by a glacial
sheet of ice between 10,000
to 30,000 years ago to its
present-day location just
west of the Town of
Okotoks.