Glacial Drift

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Glacial drift is a sedimentary material that has been transported by glaciers. It includes clay, silt, sand, gravel, and boulders.

Glaciers are found in the cryosphere regions of the Earth where the temperature remains below the freezing point of water. Although glacial ice is mainly found in the Polar regions today, evidence suggests that glaciers covered a larger area of the Earth's surface in the past.

Due to fluctuations in the Earth's climate, its topography has changed over time causing erosional and depositional processes by glaciers.

Glaciers are capable of transporting vast amounts of sediment ranging in size from large house-sized boulders to fine-grained clay-sized material as they are very solid. The sediment can be found either on the surface of the glaciers or embedded within it.

There are two types of glacial drifts:

• Stratified drift – this is sediment deposited by glacial meltwater that is sorted and layered. It includes rivers, lakes, and marine deposits.
• Glacial marine drift – rock debris that is deposited on the seafloor or lake bed as an unsorted chaotic deposit when glaciers reach oceans or lakes as large icebergs and melt over time.

Drift prospecting is performed by geologists to look for economically valuable mineral deposits which may be contained within glaciers.