moulin

/mooh laonn"/, n.

a nearly vertical shaft or cavity worn in a glacier by surface water falling through a crack in the ice.

[1855-60; < F < LL molinum MILL¹]

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▪ geology

      (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.

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