Experiments on the Origin of Kettle-holes

Abstract

AbstractSeveral theories exist on the origin of kettle-holes in pro-glacial outwash deposits. The most widely accepted origin involves the melting of buried ice. The author carried out some experiments in which ice blocks were placed on or in outwash sediments in a tank in order to determine which mechanisms of ice melt would be most likely to give rise to kettle-hole features. The largest kettle-holes were produced by the melting of buried ice blocks; smaller transient depressions were formed from ice blocks melting in streams of flowing water; while, rather than depressions, ridges resembling pingos and moraines were created by ice blocks melting on a dry or saturated gravel surface.