esker

American  

[es-ker] / ˈɛs kər /

noun

Geology.

1. a serpentine ridge of gravelly and sandy drift, believed to have been formed by streams under or in glacial ice.

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esker British  

/ ˈɛskɑː, ˈɛskə, -kə /

noun

1. Also called: os.  a long winding ridge of gravel, sand, etc, originally deposited by a meltwater stream running under a glacier

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esker Scientific  

/ ĕs′kər /

1. 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).

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Etymology

Origin of esker

First recorded in 1850–55, esker is from the Irish word eiscir ridge of mountains

Example Sentences

Some 15,000 years ago, when the Laurentide ice sheet receded from Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, it left behind an esker, an upside-down riverbed of well-drained sand.

From New York Times • May 23, 2022

When the ice recedes, the sediment remains as a long sinuous ridge known as an esker.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2017

When the ice recedes, the sediment will remain to form a long sinuous ridge known as an esker.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

Greenhill Rapids is a �-mile-long cauldron across the backbone of an esker, one of those weird rock formations created by the dragging fingers of a receding glacier.

From Time Magazine Archive

The clean-washed esker gravels afford little encouragement to plant growth, and the rain water drains away rapidly through the porous gravel.

From Drainage Modifications and Glaciation in the Danbury Region Connecticut State of Connecticut State Geological and Natural History Survey Bulletin No. 30 by Sawyer-Harvey, Ruth

Related Words

• bluff
• cliff
• dune
• highland
• hillside
• hilltop
• ridge
• slope