Talk:Drumlin

message: Is Glastonbury Tor in Somerset a drumlin, you geologists? Wetman 19:52, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Is it radially symetrical? It is described as conical, which would not be a drumlin shape. Drumlins are elongated (see drumlin field). I wonder if the whole mound is a human artifact?  There are such mounds in Ohio and other places in the US. Pollinator 05:35, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Try www.google.com "Glastonbury tor map" The tor is steeper at one end, more tapering at the other, and highest at the steep end. definitely more teardrop than "conical' which you read all the time. It rises out of the low rolling landscape, onces fenny, now drained, like a... well, like a drumlin. Wetman 05:49, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I did some looking around sites on the Internet, and it does not sound like a drumlin. Here's one description of the geology:  [] Try a search for "Glastonbury tor geology" for more Pollinator 06:25, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Excellent! not a drumlin after all. This link goes to the Glastonbury Tor entry! Thanks. Wetman 06:41, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Glastonbury Tor

message: I added Minnesota to the list of places with Drumlins (there is a huge field of them, the Wadena Drumlin Range, in the southern part of the state), but instead of listing a bunch of states, perhaps a reference like "upper midwest" would be better? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaszeta (talk • contribs) 12:56, 26 August 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Think global! Drumlins are not only found in the USA. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.236.117.2 (talk) 09:00, 4 October 2004 (UTC)
replies: text:  D'oh!  I'll see what I can do about re-writing this so that it isn't so US-centric.  -- Kaszeta 13:51, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Drumlin locations 

message: I've got a great picture of an Alaskan drumlin I made from a TM satellite image. How do I post a picture?
timbabwe  2:12, 2 June 2007   (UTC)
:What's your basis for calling that a drumlin? It appears to me to be a bedrock-controlled feature that has an elliptical shape. On the topo map of the region, I don't see any drumlins. --orlady 11:38, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Its a syncline, a layer of harder rock has been folded by compressional tectonism forming a bowl shaped depression. An antecedent river (a river older then topography) has breached the wall of the anticline at the 5 o'clock position. Antecedent rivers and extensive erosion like this take several million years. It is unlikely to be in Alaska, though I'm happy to be corrected, Alaska was eroded by glaciers a just 12,000 thousand years ago. I'll put it on the syncline page. --Diamonddavej 18:47, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: We could still use a decent photo of a typical drumlin on this page - not a distant or half-eroded one. cheers Geopersona (talk) 07:25, 22 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Picture of a drumlin

message: The accuracy given for lengths of drumlins is subject to doubt.  you do not measure the largest size of such a feature up to the nearest half foot.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.215.159.174 (talk) 06:59, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Accuracy for lengths

message: Can someone suggest a better shape than "whale shaped" I don't see whales in drumlins and I'm not sure that whales share a common shape. If whales really do have a common shape and drumlins do in fact substantially resemble this, then I stand corrected. 70.56.195.231 (talk) 08:30, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I've swapped this for a more satisfactory reference to the shapes of inverted spoons and half buried eggs as per a reputable author. cheers Geopersona (talk) 07:22, 22 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I have also added reference to the description of drumlin swarms as creating 'basket of eggs topography', the allusion being to the shape which a wet cloth would assume once draped over such a collection of eggs. cheers Geopersona (talk) 05:06, 21 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Whale shape 

message: In order to add to the drumlin page it may be worth adding a piece on how drumlins aid us in the reconstruction of former ice sheets????  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.197.30.124 (talk) 11:05, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  drumlin  

message: — Preceding unsigned comment added by Williamborg (talk • contribs) 23:01, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  reference parked for later incorporation 

message: I am a geologist, but I work mainly with petroleum exploration. I can't find where it explicitly states how to tell the direction of ice flow by looking at photos of drumlins. I realize that glacial alignment can be easily determined, but that leaves the actual direction of travel a 180-degree guess without being at the actual location to look for other clues like which way is downhill, which cannot always be readily known from a photograph. If possible, how does one tell the direction of glacier movement from the differences in shape from one end of a drumlin to the other? Or are drumlins irregular/varied enough so there is no way to tell with reasonable certainty which way the ice was moving without having to use additional information? Thanks! Linstrum (talk) 11:25, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Answer: in drumlin fields as in the Lake Ontario plain (NY State) the upstream side has gentler slopes and is streamlined, the downstream side is much steeper. Blauwkoe (talk) 12:50, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, got it! Thanks. I suppose a partial analogy between sand dunes and drumlins could be made, where the downwind side of sand dunes is the steep side while the upwind side of a sand dune is the gentle slope side; and with drumlins the side where the ice is moving away from it is the steep side and the side of the drumlin where the ice is approaching it is the gentle slope side. It would be interesting to compare flow dynamics between air and sand dunes and ice and drumlins. Linstrum (talk) 10:56, 24 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Can the direction of ice movement be determined from drumlin shape? 

message: Reference is made to some drumlins being made of bedrock - that seems curious. A drumlin-shaped feature might arise from erosion of bedrock but it is surely not to be called a drumlin any more than a dune-shaped piece of bedrock would be called a dune. cheers Geopersona (talk) 05:09, 21 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bedrock drumlins? 

message: The etymology of the -lin/ -ling suffix needs to be added. (It's quite interesting because drum is Celtic and -lin Germanic.) S C Cheese (talk) 19:04, 14 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology in the Introduction 

message: Please forgive this very belated (and I'm sure very irritating) follow-up question, but I noticed this edit from 2019 where you reverted my addition of a  tag and thought it merited further discussion. While you're right that there's only one way to make a spoon resemble a small hill (setting aside the question of whether that would be inverting the spoon, precisely), this is a simile that fundamentally begs the question: by telling the reader a drumlin is a small hill that looks like something when we make that thing look like a small hill, we tell them precisely nothing about what a drumlin looks like!
"Half-buried egg", meanwhile, is confusing for different reasons – the egg not being inverted, I imagine it sitting upright with the pointier end poking out of the ground, when I think we're supposed to imagine the egg lying on its side. This is complicated further by the first two images in the article, neither of which seem to me to feature anything resembling spoons or eggs. The U.S. National Park Service uses the egg analogy but also has . Can we add something like this to the lead—ideally in place of these muddled similes, but I'd settle for alongside? Might we also move up the third image, which gives the best indication of what a drumlin looks like in isolation? – Arms & Hearts (talk) 16:48, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Though I didn't add this piece of text to the article, I see when looking in their authoritative tome, that Benn and Evans are themselves quoting Menzies who it seems, wrote in 1979 that they are 'typically smooth, oval-shaped hills or hillocks of glacial drift resembling in morphology an inverted spoon or an egg half-buried along its long axis'. But maybe add the long-axis bit? I don't see a problem with it being described in the way that it is - is it not quite straightforward? The wording says it looks like ('is in the shape of') an inverted spoon, not as you say, 'like something when we make that thing look like a small hill'. If this description is good enough for some of the key people in this field and is written as it is in language that non-glaciologists can readily understand, then that seems more than acceptable to me as suitable for the article. Of course what would really help would be some better photos of individual ordinary drumlins which really bring home the shape.  thanks Geopersona (talk) 17:45, 3 May 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm minded to request a third opinion to see whether I'm alone in finding this description confusing – I'm aware that no one else seems to have objected to it so it's obviously a possibility. In the meantime, what do you think about moving :File:Drowned drumlin in Clew Bay.jpg to the top of the article as the clearest depiction, for the purpose of demonstrating the shape, out of the few we have? – Arms & Hearts (talk) 13:17, 11 June 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: 
Response to third opinion request:
Hi all. Per WP3O: . The above is a good start to a constructive discussion, but not thorough as yet. Personally, I think further discussion is required before seeing a 3O. However, if you disagree, please re-list your request and I will leave it for another editor to review. — MaxnaCarta  ( 💬 • 📝 ) 04:20, 13 June 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Similes