esker
a serpentine ridge of gravelly and sandy drift, believed to have been formed by streams under or in glacial ice.
Origin of esker
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use esker in a sentence
Eskers (the Swedish sar) are among the occasionally puzzling relics of the British glacial period.
In the neighbourhood are seen striking examples of the glacial phenomenon of eskers, or gravel ridges.
Hence the streams by which eskers were laid did not flow unconfined upon the surface of the ground.
The Elements of Geology | William Harmon NortonIn Freds opinion, Caribou are apprehensive of sandy eskers as the haunt of Wolves, and do not linger there.
The Barren Ground Caribou of Keewatin | Francis HarperThese ridges of gravel and sand are known as osars or eskers.
The Geography of the Region about Devils Lake and the Dalles of the Wisconsin | Rollin D. Salisbury
British Dictionary definitions for esker
eskar (ˈɛskɑː, -kə)
/ (ˈɛskə) /
a long winding ridge of gravel, sand, etc, originally deposited by a meltwater stream running under a glacier: Also called: os
Origin of esker
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for esker
[ ĕs′kər ]
A long, narrow, steep-sided ridge of coarse sand and gravel deposited by a stream flowing in or under a melting sheet of glacial ice. Eskers range in height from 3 m (9.8 ft) to more than 200 m (656 ft) and in length from less than 100 m (328 ft) to more than 500 km (310 mi).
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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