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How do kettle lakes form after buried ice blocks melt?

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esker: Nunavut — glacial landform Eskers, or narrow ridges of gravel and sand left by a retreating glacier, wind through western Nunavut, Canada, near the Thelon River.

Kettle lakes form through the melting of detached, stagnant blocks of glacial ice that have been buried or partially buried by glacial debris, such as till or outwash.12

The process generally occurs in one of two ways:
* Partial burial: As a detached ice mass melts, surrounding sediment slides into the space previously occupied by the ice, creating a depression.1
* Complete burial: An ice block becomes insulated under a thick mantle of debris and may persist for hundreds of years. When it eventually melts, the overlying sediment collapses into the void, forming a steep-sided depression.12

These depressions, known as kettles, are typically circular because melting ice blocks tend to become rounded over time. When these basins fill with water, they are referred to as kettle lakes. They may occur individually or in groups, sometimes creating a landscape characterized by mounds and basins known as kettle and kame topography.12