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Aug 11, 2010
This week's themeGlacial landforms This week's words drumlin moraine esker fjord cirque 
The Keptie Hills esker
Arbroath, Scotland Photo: Stevie D.
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with Anu Gargesker
PRONUNCIATION:
(ES-kuhr)
MEANING:
noun:
A long, narrow ridge of gravel and sand deposited by a stream flowing in
or under a retreating glacier.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Irish eiscir (ridge of gravel).
USAGE:
"Skiing the moraine is always a seminar in geology, but this particular
jumble of drumlins and eskers -- characteristic landforms left by restless
glaciation -- puts it in a nutshell. My Grade 11 geography teacher likened
an esker to the mess left by a drunk simultaneously walking backward and
throwing up."John Barber; Ski Country, Without the Traffic Jams; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Dec 6, 2008. See more usage examples of esker in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Oh, threats of hell and hopes of paradise! / One thing at least is certain -- this life flies; / One thing is certain, and the rest is lies; / The flower that once has blown forever dies. -Omar Khayyam, poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and physician (1048-1131)
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