A terminal moraine, also called an end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge of the ice, is driven no further and instead is deposited in an unsorted pile of sediment. Because the glacier acts very much like a conveyor belt, the longer it stays in one place, the greater the amount of material that will be deposited. The moraine is left as the marking point of the terminal extent of the ice.
Terminal moraine of Wordie Glacier, Greenland
Terminal moraine of Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada
Davidson Glacier, Alaska. There is a glacier-fed lake in addition to the formation of a small channel heading in the southeast direction.
"The Mothership", a 3-mile-wide (4.8 km) terminal lobe of a glacier flowing down from the interior ice cap on top of the Byam Martin Mountains, Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada. Note the terminal moraine "bulldozed" at the ice front.
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris, sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sheet. It may consist of partly rounded particles ranging in size from boulders down to gravel and sand, in a groundmass of finely-divided clayey material sometimes called glacial flour. Lateral moraines are those formed at the side of the ice flow, and terminal moraines were formed at the foot, marking the maximum advance of the glacier. Other types of moraine include ground moraines and medial moraines.
The snow-free debris hills around the lagoon are lateral and terminal moraines of a valley glacier in Manang, Nepal.
Moraine in Rocky Mountain National Park, taken by Ansel Adams in 1941.
Moraines around the Icy lake (2709 m), just below Musala peak (2925 m) in Rila Mountain, Bulgaria.
Lateral moraines of a retreating glacier in Engadin.