A marine or ice-borne erratic is a boulder of glacial origin that has been transported by floating ice on the ocean. The floating ice is commonly carried by currents, winds, and tides to ground on or near the coastline, usually in the spring, and to melt there, depositing its load of boulders and finer glacial debris. The erratic boulder is usually recognized first by its anomalous size and exotic nature: it is of a rock type that is not seen commonly cropping out (in situ) on the present-day coast. Sometimes it bears facets and striations characteristic of ice dynamics, but commonly this surface texture is abraded by nearshore wave action and probably less than 1% of the erratics carry distinctive glacial signatures. The rock itself may also contain distinctive indicators of its distant origin: a unique lithology or a noticeable assemblage of fossils. The American Geological Institute's Glossary of Geology (Bates and Jackson, 1980) includes plants and animals in the definition of...
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Fairbridge, R.W. (1982). Marine erratics . In: Beaches and Coastal Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30843-1_273
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