moulin

moulin, (French: “mill”), a nearly cylindrical, vertical shaft that extends through a glacier and is carved by meltwater from the glacier’s surface. Postglacial evidence of a moulin, also called a glacial mill, is a giant kettle, or, more properly, a moulin pothole, scoured to great depth in the bedrock by the rocks and boulders transported by the falling water. A moulin pothole in Lucerne, Switz., was scoured to a depth of 8 m (27 feet). Although the process of formation is thought to be approximately the same as that of a fluvial pothole, the moulin pothole can be distinguished by its location. Moulin potholes have been found on hilltops and steep slopes and may occur scattered over a valley floor, without the kind of alignment that occurs when streams are involved. A moulin is noted for the thunderous sound of the meltwater that funnels into it.