Aerial photograph of the Cape Cod area. The Cape is a moraine, a large accumulation of glacial material that was bull-dozed by the ice. Photograph courtesy of Eugene Domack, Hamilton College. Terminal or end moraines can be quite large. They are the result of all the material carried by the glacier to the glacier front, much as a bulldozer pushes and scrapes material into a pile.
Terminal moraines mark the position of the ice where it was most extensive.
Where the ice pauses during retreat, it develops recessional moraines. The longer the glacier pauses, the larger the moraine. Small end moraines of Athabasca Glacier, Canada, showing where the ice has paused during its retreat. Many of the moraines have been created in historic times, indicating how quickly this valley glacier has retreated. Photograph by S. Shipp, Rice University.