Tinley Moraine facts for kids
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 probably 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.