What are moraines?

Moraines are big piles of rocks and dirt left behind by glaciers, like when a giant snowplow stops moving and drops all its cargo.

Imagine you're pushing a shopping cart full of toys across the floor. When you stop, all the toys spill out where you stopped. That’s kind of what happens with glaciers, they move huge amounts of rocks and soil, and when they slow down or melt away, those rocks and dirt pile up in a moraine.

Sometimes the pile is right at the edge of where the glacier used to be, like a wall made of rocks. Other times, the pile might be in a line, these are called terminal moraines, and they can show how far the glacier went.

Moraines help scientists know where glaciers were long ago, just like a toy spill shows where you stopped pushing your cart!