SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 9 of 100

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Which of the following best distinguishes glacial till from water-laid glacial sediments?

(a)It is layered and stratified due to flowing meltwater.
(b)It is composed of uniformly sized, rounded particles.
(c)It is an unsorted mix of materials deposited directly by ice.
(d)It forms only in glacial lakes through sediment settling.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. NCERT defines glacial till as "the unassorted coarse and fine debris dropped by the melting glaciers". Most of its rock fragments are angular to sub-angular.

Water-laid outwash is the opposite: roughly stratified and assorted, with somewhat rounded fragments. Till is told apart by being unsorted and dropped directly by ice → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
It is layered and stratified due to flowing meltwater. — Layering by meltwater describes outwash, which NCERT calls roughly stratified and assorted. Till is unassorted.
(b)
It is composed of uniformly sized, rounded particles. — Rounded, evenly sized grains are the mark of water sorting. Till mixes coarse and fine debris, mostly angular to sub-angular.
(d)
It forms only in glacial lakes through sediment settling. — Settling in a lake is a water-laid process. Till is dropped by the ice itself, in moraines and in sheets over valley floors.

Concept

A glacier deposits in two ways. Debris dropped straight from melting ice is till: unsorted and unlayered, coarse and fine fragments lying together.

Debris carried off by meltwater streams is sorted by the flowing water before it settles. These glacio-fluvial or outwash deposits are roughly stratified, and their fragments are somewhat rounded at the edges.

Landforms follow the split: moraines and drumlins are built mainly of till, outwash plains of gravel, silt, sand and clay.

Key facts

NCERT: glacial till is the unassorted coarse and fine debris dropped by melting glaciers.
Rock fragments in till are mostly angular to sub-angular.
Outwash (glacio-fluvial) deposits are roughly stratified and assorted, with somewhat rounded fragments.
Moraines are long ridges of till, and drumlins are composed mainly of till.

Study next

Moraines: terminal, lateral, medial and groundEskers, drumlins and outwash plainsErosional glacial landforms: cirques, horns and U-shaped valleys

Common traps

Assuming anything a glacier leaves is layered. The meltwater deposits are, roughly, and till is not.
Picking the glacial-lake option because it names a glacier. Lake settling is water-laid, the opposite of till.

Glacial landforms from the same NCERT chapter also appear at 12 Sep 2025, 09:00, GA Q.9 (hanging valleys and truncated spurs).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 135 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.