Inspired by this xkcd comic:
I saw quite a few of these glacial erratics in the Dhauliganga river valley around the villages of Dugtu and Dantu. Here is my friend sitting on one of them.
This boulder is a high grade gneiss. It is an erratic because the surrounding bedrock is all low grade phyllite and slate. The source of the high grade gneiss boulder is the snow capped range you see in the background. These are the Panchachuli peaks and the Panchachuli glacier has eroded, transported and deposited gneiss rocks all the way down the valley onto a different bedrock.
The photo below shows another erratic from this valley. If you look closely it is a mixed rock made up of high grade gneiss intruded by light colored granite. A big patch of dark grey banded gneiss is visible in the lower right corner of the boulder. The cliffs in the background and the substrate on which the boulder rests is low grade phyllite.
And a long view of village Dugtu with glacial erratics strewn all over the hill slope (blue arrows).
I have been promising a post on the glacial deposits of the Dhauliganga river valley. That post will come soon. Meanwhile, here is a view of some of the moraines I saw near village Dugtu. Photo taken from near the snout of the glacier facing downstream.
The linear ridge in the center of the photo made up of rust, brown and light colored boulders is a medial moraine. It was formed when two glacial streams carrying debris along their edges joined. As these glaciers receded the debris along their edges (lateral moraines) coalesced and formed a ridge in the center of the valley. You can see the milky white colored Dhauliganga river flowing to the right of the ridge. The blue arrows to the right of the picture high up along the mountain slopes point to older lateral moraines deposited when the Panchachuli glacier was thicker and extended further down in the valley...
more on these deposits later..
I saw quite a few of these glacial erratics in the Dhauliganga river valley around the villages of Dugtu and Dantu. Here is my friend sitting on one of them.
This boulder is a high grade gneiss. It is an erratic because the surrounding bedrock is all low grade phyllite and slate. The source of the high grade gneiss boulder is the snow capped range you see in the background. These are the Panchachuli peaks and the Panchachuli glacier has eroded, transported and deposited gneiss rocks all the way down the valley onto a different bedrock.
The photo below shows another erratic from this valley. If you look closely it is a mixed rock made up of high grade gneiss intruded by light colored granite. A big patch of dark grey banded gneiss is visible in the lower right corner of the boulder. The cliffs in the background and the substrate on which the boulder rests is low grade phyllite.
And a long view of village Dugtu with glacial erratics strewn all over the hill slope (blue arrows).
I have been promising a post on the glacial deposits of the Dhauliganga river valley. That post will come soon. Meanwhile, here is a view of some of the moraines I saw near village Dugtu. Photo taken from near the snout of the glacier facing downstream.
The linear ridge in the center of the photo made up of rust, brown and light colored boulders is a medial moraine. It was formed when two glacial streams carrying debris along their edges joined. As these glaciers receded the debris along their edges (lateral moraines) coalesced and formed a ridge in the center of the valley. You can see the milky white colored Dhauliganga river flowing to the right of the ridge. The blue arrows to the right of the picture high up along the mountain slopes point to older lateral moraines deposited when the Panchachuli glacier was thicker and extended further down in the valley...
more on these deposits later..
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