CLASSIFICATION OF STRATIFIED DRIFT ON THE BASIS OF POSITION.
In general the conditions and relations which theoretically should prevail are those which are actually found.
On the basis of position stratified drift deposits may be classified as follows:
1. Extraglacial deposits, made by the waters of any glacial epoch if they flowed and deposited beyond the farthest limit of the ice.
2. Supermorainic deposits, made chiefly during the final retreat of the ice from the locality where they occur, but sometimes by extraglacial streams or lakes of a much later time. Locally too, stratified deposits of an early stage of a glacial epoch, lying on till, may have failed to be buried by the subsequent passage of the ice over them, and so remain at the surface. In origin, supermorainic deposits were for the most part extraglacial (including marginal), so far as the ice sheet calling them into existence was concerned. Less commonly they were subglacial, and failed to be covered, and less commonly still superglacial.
3. The submorainic (basal) deposits were made chiefly by extraglacial waters in advance of the first ice which affected the region where they occur. They were subsequently overridden by the ice and buried by its deposits. Submorainic deposits, however, may have arisen in other ways. Subglacial waters may have made deposits of stratified drift on surfaces which had been covered by ice, but not by till, and such deposits may have been subsequently buried. The retreat of an ice sheet may have left rock surfaces free from till covering, on which the marginal waters of the ice may have made deposits of stratified drift. These may have been subsequently covered by till during a re-advance of the ice in the same epoch or in a succeeding one. Still again, the till left by one ice sheet may have been exposed to erosion to such an extent as to have been completely worn away before the next ice advance, so that stratified deposits connected with a second or later advance may have been made on a driftless surface, and subsequently buried.
4. Intermorainic stratified drift may have originated at the outset in all the ways in which supermorainic drift may originate. It may have become intermorainic by being buried in any one of the various ways in which the stratified drift may become submorainic.
CHANGES IN DRAINAGE EFFECTED BY THE ICE.
While the Ice Was on.
As the continental ice sheet invaded a region, the valleys were filled and drainage was thereby seriously disturbed. Different streams were affected in different ways. Where the entire basin of a stream was covered by ice, the streams of that basin were, for the time being, obliterated. Where the valley of a stream was partially filled with ice, the valley depression was only partially obliterated, and the remaining portion became the scene of various activities. Where the ice covered the lower course of a stream but not the upper, the ice blocked the drainage, giving rise to a lake. Where the ice covered the upper course of a stream, but not its lower, the lower portion was flooded, and though the river held its position, it assumed a new phase of activity. Streams issuing from the ice usually carry great quantities of gravel and sand, and make deposits along their lower courses. Long continued glacial drainage usually results in a large measure of aggradation. This was true of the streams of the glacial period.