![A kettle pond in Lamar Valley (Yellowstone National Park, WY-MT-ID) A kettle pond in Lamar Valley (Yellowstone National Park, WY-MT-ID)](/common/uploads/stories/images/nri/20161205/articles/28906D76-1DD8-B71B-0B7F39D20AFB9357/28906D76-1DD8-B71B-0B7F39D20AFB9357.jpg)
NPS Photo/John Good
As a glacier recedes, sediment is washed out from the glacier and deposited in a flat area below, forming an outwash plain. Depressions, known as kettles, often pockmark these outwash plains and other areas with glacial deposits.
Kettles form when a block of stagnant ice (a serac) detaches from the glacier. Eventually, it becomes wholly or partially buried in sediment and slowly melts, leaving behind a pit. In many cases, water begins fills the depression and forms a pond or lake—a kettle. Kettles can be feet or miles long, but they are usually shallow.
![Kettle lakes form in front of the Kennicott Glacier (Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, AK) Kettle lakes form in front of the Kennicott Glacier (Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, AK)](/common/uploads/stories/images/nri/20170112/articles/CD933129-1DD8-B71B-0BAEAF3275E224A0/CD933129-1DD8-B71B-0BAEAF3275E224A0.jpg)
NPS Photo/Jacob W. Frank
To learn more about glaciers, glacier features, and glacial landforms, see the Glaciers & Glacial Landforms Page.
Part of a series of articles titled Glacier Landforms.
Previous: Paternoster Lakes
Next: Drumlins
Last updated: February 22, 2018