Formation
Potholes vary in size from a few inches to several feet in depth and diameter. They most commonly occur in shields, where there are ancient rocks (granite, gneiss) with different resistances to erosion, so strong pebbles can fall into small cavities in stream bottoms and swirl, making the cavities wider and deeper. The hardness of the pebbles must be the same or higher than the rock at the bottom of stream where the kettle is forming. In areas where there are diamonds and quartz pebbles, the hardness of these carve potholes and sometimes remain trapped in the bottom of them. That is why these potholes are a good place to find diamonds (the hardest natural mineral on Earth).
Giant's kettles can also be formed while the surface is covered by a glacier. Water, produced by the thawing of the ice and snow, forms streams on the surface of the glacier, which, having gathered into their courses a certain amount of morainic debris, finally flow down a crevasse as a swirling cascade or moulin. The sides of the crevasse are abraded, and a vertical shaft is formed in the ice. The erosion may be continued into the bed of the glacier; and, the ice having left the district, the giants kettle so formed is seen as an empty shaft, or as a pipe filled with gravel, sand or boulders. Such cavities and pipes afford valuable evidence as to the former extent of glaciers.
Similar holes are encountered in riverbeds at the foot of cascades, and under some other circumstances.
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