The North Pier at Ainaži, Latvia. The projection into the sea is in the far distance. This mole formerly supported a light railway.^[1]

A mole is a massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier, breakwater, or a causeway between places separated by water. The word comes from Middle French mole and ultimately Latin mōlēs meaning a large mass, especially of rock and has the same root as molecule.^[2]

Alameda Mole, San Francisco East Bay

Historically, the term "mole" was used in the San Francisco Bay Area in California to refer to the combined structure of a causeway and wooden pier or trestle extending out from the eastern shore and utilized by various railroads, such as the Key System, Southern Pacific Railroad (two), and Western Pacific Railroad. By extending the tracks the railroads could get beyond the shallow mud flats and reach the deeper waters of the Bay that could be navigated by ferries. None of the four Bay Area moles survive today, although the causeway portions of each were incorporated into the filling in of large tracts of marshland for harbor and industrial development.

The remains of the East Mole of Dunkirk harbour

The two concrete moles protecting the outer harbour at Dunkirk played a significant part in the British evacuation of Dunkirk during World War II in May 1940. The harbour had been made unusable by German bombing and it was clear that troops were not going to be taken directly off the beaches fast enough. Naval captain W. G. Tennant had been placed ashore to take charge of the navy shore parties and organise the evacuation. Tennant had what proved to be the highly successful idea of using the East Mole to take off troops. The moles had never been designed to dock ships, but despite this, the majority of troops rescued from Dunkirk were taken off in this way.^[3]

See also[link]

• Alameda Mole
• Breakwater (structure)
• Ferries of San Francisco Bay
• Jetty
• Oakland Long Wharf

References[link]

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Look up mole in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Mole may refer to:

Animals[link]

• Mole (animal) or "true mole", many of the mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America
• Golden moles, southern African mammals, similar to but unrelated to Talpidae moles
• Marsupial moles, Australian mammals, similar to but unrelated to Talpidae moles

Other common meanings[link]

• Mole (unit), the SI unit (symbol mol) used in chemistry for the amount of a substance
• Mole or melanocytic nevus, a benign tumor on human skin, usually with darker pigment
• Mole (sauce), a Mexican sauce made from chili peppers, other spices, and chocolate
• Mole (espionage), a spy who has worked his or her way into an organization or country
• Mole (architecture), a pier, jetty, breakwater, or junction between places separated by water
• Variant spelling of Moll (slang) in Australian
• Hydatidiform mole, an abnormal form of pregnancy

Places[link]

Africa[link]

• Mole River (Ghana), a tributary of the White Volta in Ghana
• Mole National Park, Ghana, named after the Mole River

Asia[link]

• Mole, Belgaum, India

Europe[link]

• River Mole in Surrey, in southern England
  • Mole Valley, a local government district in the valley of the River Mole
  • Mole Valley (UK Parliament constituency)
• River Mole, Devon, in south-west England
• La Môle, a commune of the Var Département, France
• Le Môle, a mountain peak in the French Alps

Oceania[link]

• Mole Creek, Tasmania, a town in northern Tasmania, Australia
• Mole River (New South Wales), a river in northern New South Wales, Australia

People[link]

• Louis-Mathieu Molé (1781-1855), French statesman and 18th Prime Minister of France
• Chris Mole (Christopher David Mole, born 1958), UK Labour Member of Parliament
• Fenton Mole (born 1925), American baseball player
• Jamie Mole (born 1988), English professional footballer
• Miff Mole, (Irving Milfred Mole, 1898–1961), American jazz trombonist and band leader
• The Mole (MC/producer) (Jonah Mociun), underground hip hop personality

Culture[link]

Fictional characters[link]

• Mole, an anthropomorphic mole, a main character in the children's novel The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
• The Mole (South Park), a psychotic French character from the animated series South Park
• Mole (Zdeněk Miler character), an animated character
• Adrian Mole, a fictional diarist in a series of comic novels by Sue Townsend
• Rosie Mole, Adrian's sister
• The Mole, a fictional character in three fantasy novels in Terry Brooks' Shannara series
• The Mole (Happy Tree Friends), a character from the cartoon series Happy Tree Friends
• The Mole, Gaetan Moliére, a character in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and its sequel, Atlantis: Milo's Return
• Monty Mole, a video game character
• Morocco Mole, Secret Squirrel's sidekick

Film and television[link]

• El Topo (The Mole), 1970 film
• The Mole (TV series), a reality television series
  • The Mole (Australian TV series) Australian version
  • The Mole (UK TV series) UK version
  • The Mole (U.S. TV series) U.S. version

Other uses[link]

• Mole, a tunnel boring machine
• Mole, the NATO reporting name of the Soviet Beriev Be-8 amphibian aircraft
• Mole or Mole-Richardson, a stage and motion picture lighting manufacturing company
• Mole, an informal name for Cultivator No. 6, a Second World War trench-digging machine

See also[link]

• Moles (disambiguation)
• Mol (disambiguation)
• Moll (disambiguation)

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