The planar shape of drumlins

Abstract

The asymmetry of the planar shape of drumlins is an established paradigm in the literature and characterizes drumlins as resembling tear drops with a blunt (bullet-shaped) stoss end and a tapering (pointed) lee end. It is widely cited and never been seriously questioned. In this paper, the planar shape of 44,500 drumlins mapped in various regional settings from drumlin fields in North America and Northern Europe were objectively analysed by means of Geographic Information System tools. Two parameters were considered. The first (denoted here as Aspl) focuses on the relative position of the point of intersection between the axes of the maximum length and the maximum width. It is defined as the distance between the upstream (i.e. beginning of the drumlin) and the intersection point (measured along the longitudinal axis) divided by the entire length of the long axis. Results indicate that the intersection point of the majority of drumlins (64%) is very close to the longitudinal midpoint (0.33