The debris that is eroded from the sides and floor of the valley by ‘solid stream’ of the glacier increases in quantity downstream and appears as ground moraine (below the ice stream), lateral moraines (towards the sides of the valley), medial moraine (where two glaciers meet), and terminal moraine (towards the downstream terminus of the glacier).

Beyond the terminus of the ice melt water carries the transportable material and deposits it as ‘outwash plain’. Where such deposits are laid down in pre-existing valleys along the direction of ice flow they are called valley trains.

In the case of the Himalaya, a peculiarity of the glaciers is a thick cover of debris forming a sort of ‘surface moraine’ which conceals the ice and on many of which the shepherds in Kashmir encamp in summer with their flocks.

We may now make up the discussion of glacial geomorphology. It is customary to consider this topic under two heads—topography of glacieted highlands associated with mountain (valley) glaciers, and that of glaciated lowlands associated with continental glaciers.