Wellfleet Ponds Trail, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A visit to kettle ponds provokes the thoughts about glacial history
of the present, lavishly wooded place where the ponds are hidden in their own quietude.
It all began 10,000 or so years back when glaciers were in retreat,
leaving behind the outwash of rocky debris to cover residual ice-blocks.
As the blocks melted, the outwash deposits above them slumped and formed kettles.
And those kettles with the bottoms below ground water level became kettle ponds,
clear and fresh, reflective of their glacial ancestry.
