glaciogenic

Glaciogenic is an adjective used in geology, geomorphology, and related disciplines to describe processes, deposits, or landforms that originate from the action of glaciers or from glacially produced meltwater. The term covers materials deposited directly by ice as well as sediments laid down by meltwater streams at the glacier’s margins or beneath it.

Glaciogenic processes include physical erosion by moving ice, such as plucking and abrasion, which produce fine rock flour and sculpted bedrock. Deposits associated with glaciers include till, a poorly sorted sediment deposited directly by ice, and glaciofluvial outwash, consisting of sands and gravels carried by meltwater. Common glaciogenic landforms are moraines (lateral, medial, end), drumlins, eskers, and kames, as well as kettle lakes formed from melted blocks within otherwise undulating terrain. Lacustrine and glaciomarine deposits also occur near former glacier margins.

In stratigraphy and paleoclimatology, glaciogenic records help identify past glaciations and reconstruct climate conditions. The term also appears in sedimentary and petroleum geology to describe reservoirs or plays that formed in glacially influenced environments. Glaciogenic interpretations require distinguishing ice-proximal from ice-distal processes and accounting for post-glacial modification by tectonics and climate change.