ABSTRACT
Whenever glaciers impede drainage, topographic closure may occur, resulting in the ponding of runoff. The term ‘proglacial lake’ has been used for lakes that owe their existence to the presence of a confining glacier margin (ice-marginal lakes), and for lakes that were strongly influenced by glacial meltwater, but which lay in a closed depression not directly in contact with the ice. In some ways this distinction is academic, and it is also arbitrary as to when a meltwater-fed lake not bounded by a glacier evolved from proglacial to non-glacial. However, ice-marginal lake basins commonly have a distinctive morphology and contain sediments with unique characteristics that reflect both their close proximity to the ice and the rapid changes that typically occur in that environment. As ice advanced and retreated, the distribution of these lakes changed; many eventually drained as the ice barrier disappeared, as isostatic rebound altered basin closure, and as outlets eroded.
