Plural of esker; long, narrow ridges of sand and gravel deposited by meltwater streams flowing beneath glaciers during ice ages.
From Irish esker, from Old Irish eiscir meaning 'ridge.' The term was adopted into geological science to describe these prominent landscape features in glaciated regions.
Eskers can run for miles in perfectly straight lines across the landscape—they're basically the ghost highways of extinct glaciers, and indigenous peoples and early settlers often followed them naturally because the raised ground provided better travel routes and drainage.
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