A randkluft (from the German for ''marginal cleft/crevasse'') or rimaye (from the same French ) is the

headwall In physical geography and geology, the headwall of a glacier, glacial cirque (landform), cirque is its highest cliff. The term has been more broadly used to describe similar geomorphic features of non-glacial origin consisting of a concave depress ...

gap between a

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

or snowfield and the adjacent rock face at the back of the

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984, p. 438. . or, more loosely, between the rock face and the side of the glacier. In French, the word ''rimaye'' covers both notions of randkluft and

bergschrund A bergschrund (from the German for ''mountain cleft''; sometimes abbreviated in English to "schrund") is a crevasse that forms where moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice or firn above. It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineer ...

Formation

It is formed by the melting of ice against warmer rock and may be very deep. During summer therefore, a randkluft will become wider and thus more difficult for climbers to negotiate. Randklufts are often found in relatively low-lying glaciers such as the Blaueis in the

Berchtesgaden Alps The Berchtesgaden Alps (, ) are a mountain range of the Northern Limestone Alps, named after the market town of Berchtesgaden located in the centre. It is crossed by the Austria–Germany border: the central part belongs to the Berchtesgadener Lan ...

or the Höllentalferner in the Wetterstein. A randkluft is similar to, but not identical with, a

, which is the place on a high-altitude glacier where the moving ice stream breaks away from the static ice frozen to the rock creating a large crevasse. Unlike a randkluft, a bergschrund has two ice walls.

Gallery

File:Randkluft watzmann 20111005.jpg, Wide randkluft on the east face of the Watzmann File:Hoellentalferner Randkluft Bergsteiger 20110709.jpg, Alpinists over the randkluft of the Höllentalferner glacier

References

External links

Cryosphere Glossary
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Photo of the randkluft on the Höllentalferner
Glaciology Geographical terminology in mountaineering {{Glaciology-stub

Formation

Gallery

See also

References

External links