Campbell Esker

The Campbell Esker is an elongated glacial ridge in Canada, notable as a textbook example of subglacial river deposition. It is a classic esker landform left behind by the continental ice sheets.

A meltwater river flowing in a tunnel beneath a glacier deposited sand and gravel along its channel. When the ice melted away, that channel fill remained standing as a long, winding ridge.

It is located in Canada, a country criss-crossed by thousands of eskers left as the Laurentide Ice Sheet decayed at the end of the last ice age. Its value lies in clearly illustrating that subglacial deposition process.

They are made mostly of stratified sand and gravel deposited by running meltwater, which is why eskers are often quarried for aggregate. The ridge's winding shape traces the old river channel under the ice.