Fluting (geology)

In the earth sciences, fluting and flute describe several distinct grooved or ridged features that take on very different meanings across geomorphology, glaciology, sedimentology and speleology rather than naming one single landform. In geomorphology, flutes form through the weathering and erosion of rock surfaces, especially in well-jointed, coarse-grained rock such as granite. In glaciology, glacial flutes are elongated ridges of till, sand, silt or clay that build up when a boulder lodges on the floor beneath a glacier and stays in place as the ice flows over and around it. In sedimentology, flutes are scoured into a muddy bottom by turbulent, sediment-laden water currents, and in speleology, cave flutes are grooves cut into carbonate rock by water dissolving it as it runs down a cave wall.