sérac

American  

[si-rak, sey-rak] / sɪˈræk, seɪˈrak /

Or serac

noun

plural

séracs

1. a large irregularity of glacial ice, as a pinnacle found in glacial crevasses and formed by melting or movement of the ice.

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sérac British  

/ ˈsɛræk /

noun

1. a pinnacle of ice among crevasses on a glacier, usually on a steep slope

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Etymology

Origin of sérac

1855–60; < French sérac kind of white cheese (compare Medieval Latin serācium ), ultimately < Latin serum whey

Example Sentences

A tourist descending from the Grands Mulets was passing, under an impending sérac, around the head of a crevasse, where the only footway was a few inches of ice hewn with the axe.

From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6, May, 1896 by Various

But this scene of marvellous grandeur and desolation was not given over to silence, for ever and anon the fall of a mighty sérac would boom forth with a thunderous roar.

From Fordham's Feud by Mitford, Bertram

For, only at rare times, when he stood high on a sérac, could he see his way for more than a few yards ahead.

From Running Water by Mason, A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley)

Here we were at the upper end of one of the flats of the glacier that fills the Grand Basin, the sérac of another great rise just above us.

From The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest Peak in North America by Stuck, Hudson

Huge blocks of ice were strewn upon it, ripped off the left-hand wall, but it was nowhere crevassed as badly as the lower glacier, but much more broken up into sérac.

From The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest Peak in North America by Stuck, Hudson