kettle

kettle, in geology, depression in a glacial outwash drift made by the melting of a detached mass of glacial ice that became wholly or partly buried. The occurrence of these stranded ice masses is thought to be the result of gradual accumulation of outwash atop the irregular glacier terminus. Kettles may range in size from 5 m (15 feet) to 13 km (8 miles) in diameter and up to 45 m in depth. When filled with water they are called kettle lakes. Most kettles are circular in shape because melting blocks of ice tend to become rounded; distorted or branching depressions may result from extremely irregular ice masses.

Two types of kettles are recognized: a depression formed from a partially buried ice mass by the sliding of unsupported sediment into the space left by the ice and a depression formed from a completely buried ice mass by the collapse of overlying sediment. By either process, small kettles may be formed from ice blocks that were not left as the glacier retreated but rather were later floated into place by shallow meltwater streams. Kettles may occur singly or in groups; when large numbers are found together, the terrain appears as mounds and basins and is called kettle and kame topography.