glacial erratic
a boulder swept from its place of origin by glacier advance or retreat and deposited elsewhere as the glacier melted; after glacial melt, the boulder might be stranded in a field or forest where no other rocks of its type or size exist.
Image
Erratic boulder, northeastern Manitoba, Canada. A sense of the size of the glacial erratic can be estimated by noting the person standing in front of the boulder, on the left side. This erratic, as well as neighboring ones, were carried by the Keewatian Ice Sheet.
Lynda Dredge, Natural Resources Canada, copyright Terrain Sciences Division, Geological Survey of Canada
Topic(s):
glaciers