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Tinley Moraine

Tinley Moraine is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tinley Moraine rather than just read about it. In short: The Tinley Moraine is a moraine around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation and is younger than the higher and wider terminal moraine called the Valparaiso Moraine, which is located farther from the lake than the Tinley Moraine.

Tinley Moraine — main illustration
Tinley Moraine — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Tinley Moraine belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Tinley Moraine to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Tinley Moraine from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Tinley Moraine is a moraine around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation and is younger than the higher and wider terminal moraine called the Valparaiso Moraine, which is located farther from the lake than the Tinley Moraine. Compared to the Valparaiso Moraine, the Tinley Moraine is much narrower and occupies a similar swath, about 6 miles (10 km) closer to Lake Michigan, and passes through the communities of Flossmoor, Western Springs, and Arlington Heights. The moraine was named after the village of Tinley Park, a village southwest of Chicago that lies on the moraine. The Tinley Moraine is a secondary ridge north of the Valparaiso Morainic System. Mapping suggests, that the Lake Michigan Lobe probably receded northward of the Valparaiso Moraine and then advanced towards the Valparaiso Moraine to form the Tinley Moraine. The Tinley Moraine begins as an offshoot of the Valparaiso Moraine in southern Lake County, Illinois, in the kettle lake region around Lake Zurich and follows the eastern crest southward through Des Plaines, Illinois, and Argonne National Laboratory, where it is broken by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, then sweeping southeast towards Dyer, Indiana. Trending east towards Valparaiso, Indiana, the Tinley Moraine rejoins the Valparaiso Moraine near Wheeler, Indiana. From here, eastward, the remnant Tinley Moraine becomes mixed with the Lake Border Moraine. The Lake Border Morainic System is younger than the Tinley Moraine and dates from the Glenwood stage of glacial Lake Chicago. The Tinley Moraine is considered pre-Glenwood. The moraine is also touching southern Lynwood, Illinois, South of Cook County, Illinois and north of Will County, Illinois.

Development There is little difference between the soils mixture of the Tinley Moraine and the Valparaiso Moraine. There is a greater quantity of silt and clay similar to a fine grained lake sediments. The clay-rich and pebble-poor till implies that existence of a glacial lake on the margin of the ice. The till mixture predates the Lake Chicago beaches, of which the Glenwood Beach is the oldest and contemporary with the Lake Border Moraine along the Michigan shore. The Tinley Moraine would be an earlier recession of the Michigan Lobe a short ways north, returning southward, with both wind and water driven drifts, mixed with the return of the ice front for a short duration before the northward retreat of the ice front, establishing the Lake Chicago sequence of shorelines and moraine features in northern Wisconsin and Michigan. The impounded meltwater trapped between the ice front and the Valparaiso Moraine, found a breach in the moraine east of the Illinois-Indiana boundary following West Creek into the sluiceway of the Kankakee River. An additional release may have been in the vicinity of the Deep River – Stoney Run divide east of Crown Point.

See also Calumet Shoreline Kankakee Outwash Plain Glenwood Shoreline

References

Schoon, Kenneth J., Calumet Beginnings, 2003, Indiana University Press p. 20-21 ISBN 0-253-34218-X Encyclopedia of Chicago: "Topography"

Illustrations

Tinley Moraine: Tinley moraine, a glacial feature of Illinois & Indiana. Based on Publication 6876-12989-1-PB; The Tinley Moraine in Indiana; Allan F. Schneider; Indiana Geological Survey; Indianapolis, Indiana; undated
Tinley moraine, a glacial feature of Illinois & Indiana. Based on Publication 6876-12989-1-PB; The Tinley Moraine in Indiana; Allan F. Schneider; Indiana Geological Survey; Indianapolis, Indiana; undated

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tinley Moraine

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tinley Moraine claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tinley Moraine before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tinley Moraine ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tinley Moraine

In research
Tinley Moraine appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Tinley Moraine in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Tinley Moraine is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Geological history of the Great Lakes, Geology of Indiana, Glaciology stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Tinley Moraine outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Tinley Moraine in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Tinley Moraine means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Tinley Moraine out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tinley Moraine in simple terms?

The Tinley Moraine is a moraine around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation and is younger than the higher and wider terminal moraine called the Valparaiso Moraine, which is located farther from the lake than the Tinley Moraine.

Why does Tinley Moraine matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tinley Moraine?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tinley Moraine.

Tags

  • Geological history of the Great Lakes
  • Geology of Indiana
  • Glaciology stubs
  • Landforms of Illinois
  • Moraines of the United States

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