Which landform is formed when a block of retreating glacier melts, leaving behind a round lake?

Which landform is formed when a block of retreating glacier melts, leaving behind a round lake?

• A. Kettle Lake
• B. Cirque
• C. Arete
• D. Braided streams

Answer: (A)

When a retreating glacier leaves behind blocks of ice buried in the sediment, those blocks melt and the overlying material can collapse, leaving a circular depression that fills with meltwater. This creates a kettle lake. It forms on outwash plains from debris and sediments deposited by the glacier as it retreated. Cirques are carved by glacier erosion into bowl-shaped hollows at the valley head, not by melting a buried ice block. Aretes are sharp ridges between two cirques, and braided streams describe multiple intertwining channels in a sediment-rich area, not a round lake formed from a melted ice block.