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Buffalo Lake Moraine

Coordinates: 52°29′46″N 112°42′39″W / 52.496018°N 112.710727°W / 52.496018; -112.710727
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The Buffalo Lake Moraine, alternately, the McGregor Moraine, was left, in Alberta, by the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, North America's last glaciation.[1] It is an example of a hummocky moraine. It is one of four north–south oriented hummocky moraines, in Alberta, the other three being the Duffield Moraine, the Viking Moraine and the Couteau Moraine.

The moraine varied appearance is caused by material embedded within the glacier being left in a layer, as the glacier melted. Remaining large fragments of ice, leave kettle lakes, when they finally melt.[2] Portions of the layers of glacial till, and gravel, are eroded away, leaving a landscape of lakes and bogs, mixed with hills consisting of layers of different kinds of deposits.

Scholars once thought that this moraine marked the edge of the glaciation.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Peter G. Knight (2008). "Glacier Science and Environmental Change". John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470750230. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  2. ^ a b Mandy Munro, John Shaw (1997). "Erosional origin of hummocky terrain in south-central Alberta, Canada". Geology. Retrieved 2017-04-28. Stalker (1977) thought that this "moraine" marked the western extent of the late Wisconsinan Laurentide ice, but it was later reinterpreted as an interlobate stagnation feature and renamed the McGregor moraine (Shetsen, 1984).

52°29′46″N 112°42′39″W / 52.496018°N 112.710727°W / 52.496018; -112.710727