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Identifying Moraines in Google Earth: Characteristics and Mapping Techniques

This guide explores the identification of moraines using Google Earth, highlighting their distinct characteristics such as prominent ridges, varied shapes, and extensive terrain. Moraines can range from single, linear features to complex systems exhibiting hummocky patterns. Key identification criteria include changes in elevation, color, and texture compared to surrounding areas, as well as visual anomalies suggesting an "out of place" appearance. The process of mapping involves analyzing the crest of ridges and slope breaks, with considerations for the age of moraines based on texture and vegetation cover.

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Identifying Moraines in Google Earth: Characteristics and Mapping Techniques

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  1. Identifying moraines in Google Earth

  2. Moraines Characteristics • Prominent cross-valley or parallel single or multiple ridges with positive relief. • Linear, curved, sinuous or saw-toothed in plan. May occur as single moraines or in more complicated moraine systems. Moraines that are extensive in plan – usually appear hummocky. Continues/discontinues. Well-preserved/degraded. • Size of moraines can vary from <100 m to100s of Km long covering 1 Identification criteria • Shadowing due to change in height or relative relief. River deflection/abandoned channels. • Change in colour/texture because of different soil and vegetation covercompared to surrounding terrain. • “Elevated surfaces sticking out from their surrounding!” • Does the ridge look “out of place”? Where Mapping • Crest of ridge. • Break of slope of moraine. • If multiple ridges or hummocky character we call it a complex. It can’t be subdivided in the remote sensing based mapping

  3. Process Identify currently glaciated area/region (Alpine areas, altitudes >1500m.a.sl) Identify the contemporary glacier snout (Glacier: snow and ice, crevasses, foliation) Move down valley, to the mouth where the valley floor opens up, digitize on-screen any moraine you can spot using the identification criteria!

  4. To think about? Old Vs. Young moraines (assumptions): Younger = fresh, irregular texture, lot of boulders, greyish colour and no vegetation. Closer to contemp. ice margin. Older = smoother surface, larger, further from contemp. ice margin How does a glacier margin look like? Can we see a similar pattern in the moraines?

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