Snake coils is a descriptive term used by physical geologist and glaciologists to describe the "snake coil"-like shape that occurs along certain ablation lines. Essentially miniature tunnel valleys, the peculiar natural shapes were first described by French Geologist Jean-Jerome Peytavi in 1973 during an expedition to northern Greenland, and later confirmed by a team of Danish geologists. It is believed that snake coils are formed through the same mechanism as tunnel valleys.
Famous quotes containing the words snake and/or coils:
“Edible. Good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“Squalor spreads its hideous length
through the carts and the asses’ feet,
squalor coils and reopens
and creeps under barrow
and heap of refuse....”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)