Drift

Any debris transported or deposited by or from glacial ice and meltwater; a glacial deposit laid down by ice or water in glacial streams, lakes, or arctic oceans. The term 'drift' remains in common usage and includes alluvium, pro-glacial deposits, till, and ice-contact stratified drift.

The name given to all unconsolidated sediments which lie on the top of the ‘solid’ geology. This term originates from the belief that such deposits were transported across the waters of the Catastrophists’ ‘Flood’, frozen into drifting icebergs. The Catastrophist view of geology held that the observable changes in the earth’s surface had come about as a result of a series of natural catastrophes, of which Noah’s Flood was the latest. {See also Cuiv-ier and Lyell). The term ‘drift’ remains in common usage and includes alluvium, proglacial deposits, till and ice-contact stratified drift (forming against the edge of