Pot Holes

• These are circular holes bored into the solid bedrock of a river by pebbles and stones carried by the river.
• The rough river bed, mostly common in the upper course section or rivers, encourages turbulent flow
• Stones and pebbles can get caught up in depressions on the river’s solid river bed.
• The swirling and eddying motion of the flowing current causes the pebbles to spin and turn within these depressions widening them.
• The result are circular depressions called potholes.

Pothole formation. Image credit coolgeography.co.uk

• The diagram above shows how potholes are formed.

To learn more about landforms resulting from river action go to this page.

To access more topics go to the Geography Notes page.