The highest moraine ridge in the world

Inari’s sister lives near Pyynikinharju, which is a 200 km long moraine that was deposited by the retreating Fenno-Scandian ice sheet during the last ice age; at approximately 100 m high it is (supposedly) the highest moraine ridge in the world. A moraine is a pile of poorly sorted, angular rocks deposited by a glacier along its margin or at its terminus; they usually form when rocks that fall onto the glacier are transported downglacier and are left near the terminus as the ice melts and becomes stagnant, though in some cases moraines form when a glacier pushes sediments like a bulldozer.

I was unable to confirm whether Pyynikinharju is the highest moraine ridge in the world for a few reasons:

1. Nobody really cares.
2. There seems to be some confusion in the geologic nomenclature. The Finnish word “harju” means ridge, but is often translated as esker, which it certainly is not, though both eskers and moraines are ridges. An esker is a long, sinuous ridge of sand and till deposited in a subglacial water channel. Also, the Finnish use the word “moreeni” to mean till, which is just a relatively thin layer of subglacial sediment – till is abundant in the northern plains of North America.
3. I don’t understand enough Finnish to read through all the Finnish web pages discussing Pyynikinharju.

At any rate, it’s a beautiful place with great views of the city of Tampere and the two large lakes that surround it. So far it’s my favorite city in Finland.