Kettle
(or kettlehole) A self-contained bowl-shaped depression within an area covered by glacial stream deposits, often containing a pond. A kettle forms from the burial of a mass of glacier ice by glacial or stream sediment, followed by its subsequent melting.
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Kettles (red arrows) in the forefield of Glacier du Mont Miné, Valais, Switzerland. Exposed stagnant ice is indicated by the green arrow, and dates from the 1980s advance of this glacier. The debris-covered glacier snout is visible in the centre-background. Photo M. J. Hambrey, 2006. |