Swiss French
Swiss French ( or ') is the variety of French spoken in the French-speaking area of Switzerland known as Romandy. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, the others being German, Italian, and Romansch. In 2020 around 2 ...
''sérac'') is a block or column of glacial
ice
Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...
, often formed by intersecting
crevasse
A crevasse is a deep crack that forms in a glacier or ice sheet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rate ...
s on 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 ...
. Commonly house-sized or larger, they are dangerous to
mountaineer
Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...
s, since they may topple with little warning. Even when stabilized by persistent cold weather, they can be an impediment to glacier travel.
Seracs are found within an
icefall
An icefall is a portion of certain glaciers characterized by relatively rapid flow and chaotic crevassed surface, caused in part by gravity. The term ''icefall'' is formed by analogy with the word ''waterfall'', which is a similar phenomenon of ...
, often in large numbers, or on ice faces on the lower edge of a hanging glacier. Notable examples of the overhanging glacier edge type are well-known obstacles on some of the world's highest mountains, including K2 at " The Bottleneck" and Kanchenjunga on the border of India and Nepal. Significant seracs in the
Alps
The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia.
...
are found on the northeast face of Piz Roseg, the north face of the
Dent d'Hérens
The Dent d'Hérens (4,173 m) is a mountain in the Pennine Alps, lying on the border between Italy and Switzerland. The mountain lies a few kilometres west of the Matterhorn.
Notable summits along the east ridge are Punta Bianca (3917 m), th ...
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...
Lenin Peak
Lenin Peak or Ibn Sina (Avicenna) Peak (, ; ; , renamed () in July 2006 (Tajik); for Russian tex
* In the August
2008 K2 disaster
The 2008 K2 disaster occurred on 1 August 2008, when 11 mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second- highest mountain on Earth. Three others were seriously injured. The series of deaths, over the course of the Friday asce ...
, the collapse of large seracs was responsible for at least 8 of the 11 mountaineers' deaths.
* The April 2014 Mount Everest ice avalanche responsible for the deaths of 16 climbers was caused when a large serac broke off.
* In October 2018, nine climbers from South Korea were killed at Mount Gurja basecamp in Nepal from a gust of wind, driven by falling seracs and snow.
* On
3 July
Events Pre-1600
* 324 – Battle of Adrianople: Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium.
* 987 – Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France until the French Rev ...
2022, a serac collapse on the Marmolada Glacier in Italy killed eleven people and injured eight others.
* On April 12, 2023 three Sherpas died from a collapse of a serac in the Khumbu Icefall section of the
South Col
The South Col is a col between Mount Everest and Lhotse, the highest and fourth-highest mountains in the world, respectively. The South Col is typically swept by high winds, leaving it free of significant snow accumulation. Since 1950 (when Tibe ...
route of Mt. Everest.
Gallery
Russell glacier Greenland Serac.JPG, Serac, Russell Glacier in Greenland
WinthropGlacier06.jpg, Seracs in
firn
__NOTOC__
Firn (; from Swiss German "last year's", cognate with ''before'') is partially compacted névé, a type of snow that has been left over from past seasons and has been recrystallized into a substance denser than névé. It is ice that ...
Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier ( ), also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With an off ...
in Washington, USA
Seracs_Bossons_P1090067.JPG, Seracs, Bossons Glacier, southeastern France
Seracs Glacier Bossons P1090051.JPG, Seracs, Bossons Glacier
Glacier Piloto.JPG, Seracs, Piloto Glacier,
Cordillera Darwin
The Cordillera Darwin is an extensive mountain range mantled by an ice field that is located in Chile.
Description
Cordillera Darwin is located in the southwestern portion of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, entirely within the Chilean territor ...
,
Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan.
The archipelago consists of the main is ...
Tangra Mountains
Tangra Mountains (in Bulgarian ''Тангра планина'', 'Tangra planina' \'tan-gra pla-ni-'na\) () form the principal mountain range of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The range had been nameless until ...
,
Livingston Island
Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetland Islands, South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands north of the ...
in Antarctica
See also
*
Penitente (snow formation)
Penitentes under the night sky of the Atacama Desert
Field of penitentes ( high); upper Rio Blanco, Central Andes of Argentina
file:Snow penitentes Mount Rainier.JPG">Small penitentes in the summit crater of Mount Rainier
Penitentes ice fo ...
*
Ice calving
Ice calving, also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving, is the breaking of ice chunks from the edge of a glacier.Essentials of Geology, 3rd edition, Stephen Marshak It is a form of ice ablation or ice disruption. It is the sudden release ...