Icefall

Ice flow

Perhaps the most conspicuous consequence of glacier flow, icefalls occur where the glacier bed steepens or narrows. Most glacier ice flows at speeds of a few hundred metres per year or less. However, the flow of ice in an icefall may be measured in kilometres per year. Such rapid flow cannot be accommodated by plastic deformation of the ice. Instead, the ice fractures, forming crevasses. Intersecting fractures form ice columns or seracs. These processes are imperceptible for the most part; however, a serac may collapse or topple abruptly and without warning. This behavior often poses the biggest risk to mountaineers climbing in an icefall.

As the glacier transitions below the icefall, the topography of the glacier bed plays a crucial role in modifying its dynamics, leading to a flatter or wider bed that significantly reduces the velocity of ice movement. This change in speed and pressure causes crevasses to close up, resulting in a smoother glacier surface that presents fewer challenges for navigation and traversal.

Examples

Icefalls vary greatly in height. The Roosevelt Glacier icefall, on the north face of Mount Baker (Cascade Range, U.S.), is about 730 m high. The ice cliff of the left side of the ice fall and above the debris covering the glacier is 20 to high. Typical of mountain glaciers, this icefall forms as the ice flows from a high elevation plateau or basin accumulation zone to a lower valley ablation zone. Much larger icefalls may be found in the outlet glaciers of continental ice sheets. The icefall feeding the Lambert Glacier in Antarctica is 7 km wide and 14 km long, even though the elevation difference is only 400 m, a little more than half that of the Roosevelt Glacier icefall.

Icefalls are climbed because of their beauty and the challenge they pose. In some cases, an icefall may provide the only feasible or the easiest route up one face of a mountain. An example is the Khumbu Icefall on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest, variously described as "treacherous" and "dangerous." It is about 5,500 m above sea level.

File:Icefall hires 2.jpg|An icefall feeding into the Lambert Glacier, Antarctica. File:KhumbuIcefall.jpg|The Khumbu Icefall on Mount Everest File:MSH06 east arm crater glacier 10-22-06.jpg|A small icefall on east lobe of the new Crater Glacier on Mount St. Helens. File:IcefallAthabascaGlacierColumbiaIcefieldAlberta1993.jpg|An icefall on Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefield, Jasper National Park, Alberta.

References