Plunge pool

For the small swimming pool, see Swimming pool § Private pools.
Surface of the Seljalandsfoss plunge pool (Iceland)
Water going over the falls carries sand and pebbles that scour a plunge pool at its base.

A plunge pool (or plunge basin or waterfall lake) is a deep depression in a stream bed at the base of a waterfall or shut-in. It is created by the erosional forces of cascading water on the rocks at the formation's base where the water impacts.[1] The term may refer to the water occupying the depression, or the depression itself.[2]

  1. ^ Marshak, Stephen, 2009, Essentials of Geology, W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. ISBN 978-0393196566
  2. ^ Robert L Bates, Julia A Jackson, ed. Dictionary of Geological Terms: Third Edition, p. 391, American Geological Institute (1984)