A serac () (from Swiss French sérac) is a block or column of glacial ice, often formed by intersecting on a glacier. Commonly house-sized or larger, they are dangerous to , 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, often in large numbers, or on ice faces on the lower edge of a hanging glacier.
Incidents
-
On a 1969–1970 Japanese expedition to Mount Everest, Kyak Tsering was killed by a falling serac.
-
In 1990, an earthquake caused a block of serac to fall off Lenin Peak, triggering an avalanche which hit a camp, killing 43 people.
-
In the August 2008 K2 disaster, 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 Dhaulagiri basecamp in Nepal from a gust of wind, driven by falling seracs and snow.
-
On 3 July 2022, a serac collapse on the Marmolada Glacier in Italy killed eleven people and injured eight others.
[Matt Murphy, Marmolada glacier collapse in Italy kills seven, BBC News, 4 July 2022.]
-
On April 12, 2023 three Sherpas died from a collapse of a serac in the Khumbu Icefall section of the South Col route of Mt. Everest.
Gallery
Russell glacier Greenland Serac.JPG|Serac, Russell Glacier in Greenland
WinthropGlacier06.jpg|Seracs in firn at 3,050 metres (10,000 feet) on the Winthrop Glacier of Mount Rainier 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, Tierra del Fuego
Seracs-Tangra-Mountains.jpg|Seracs at Catalunyan Saddle in Tangra Mountains, Livingston Island in Antarctica
See also
External links
