Drumlin Farm

Hello everyone!

    I recently visited Drumlin Farm in Lincoln. As you have probably guessed based on the name, a drumlin is located there. It is a great spot, with many trails that lead you around and on top of the drumlin and in the fields surrounding the farmyard.

    
 This drumlin was about 270 ft tall and around 1,050 ft long. If you don’t know what a drumlin is, please pop on over to this post to learn more about them.

    
 The steepest side of the drumlin was the eastern slope and the side with a more gradual slope was the western one. As you know, a drumlin forms when the glacier bulldozes the sediment in front of it forward. Eventually, the glacier then either stops pushing and glides over the hill of sediment that accumulated at its snout, or, meltwater runs from the top of the glacier down the hill of sediment. In either case, this results is an asymmetrical hill, or a drumlin. Therefore, you can determine the direction the glacier was moving by looking at the steepness of its sides. The glacier always would have moved in the direction the gradual side is facing. Therefore, the when the Laurentide Ice sheet created this drumlin, it was moving from east to west because the gradual side of the drumlin is facing north.

As shown here, the steep side of the drumlin was the eastern side while the gradual one was the western side, indicating that the glacier moved from east to west.

This is a view down the gradually sloping side of the drumlin.

This is a view looking up a steeper side of the drumlin.

    Also, at the top of the drumlin, I noticed a large boulder on top of the drumlin. It is an erratic, a rock that was displaced from its original location by the glacier.  I climbed up on it, and from the top I could see spectacular views of many of the towns surrounding Lincoln.

The erratic

The view from atop the erratic

    I couldn’t leave Drumlin Farm without looking at the animals, so with the time I had left I took a quick peek into the barnyard. Since it is the spring, there were many adorable baby animals playing outside, enjoying the beautiful spring day.

A couple of kids

A little lamb

Have a fantastic day!


Image citation:
Map copyright Google Maps

Drumlins

A drumlin.

Feature Fact File: Drumlins

What is a drumlin?

Drumlins are asymmetrical hills made of poorly sorted till. They typically have one very steep side and one more gradually sloping side which indicates the direction the glacier moved. They are typically found in groups.

How does a drumlin form?  

A drumlin forms when the glacier bulldozes a pile of sediment (till) forward as it advances. This is what forms the steep side of the drumlin. Eventually, the glacier continues to move forward, but instead of continuing the bulldozing motion, the glacier slides down the other side of the pile, forming the less steep side of the drumlin. However, this is not the only way in which a drumlin’s gradual side is formed. It can also be created if the glacier stops moving after it bulldozes the material, and instead, meltwater runs down the snout, smoothing the other side of the drumlin.

A nice example of the formation of a drumlin.

   

Where do drumlins form?

    Drumlins form at the snouts of glaciers, where the sediment is being pushed forward.

Other interesting facts:
    The word drumlin comes from the Gaelic word drum, meaning “little ridge”. This feature was first named by Maxwell Henry Close, an Irish geologist and clergyman, who studied the glaciers in Ireland in the 1800s.

Have a fantastic day!


Image Citations:

Drumlin Formation. Digital image. East Lothian Landscapes. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2013. <http://www.landforms.eu/Lothian/images/drumlin.jpg>.

Morley Bow Valley, Alberta. Digital image. Vincent Massey Junior High School. N.p., Feb. 2002. Web. 26 May 2013. <http://dnowlan.ca/VM/science7/planetearth/drumlin.jpg>.