A frozen waterfall, or mass of ice resembling a frozen waterfall.

Part of a glacier where the ice flows over a bed with a very steep gradient, typically at a higher rate than both above and below. As a result the surface is fractured and heavily crevassed. In a river system, this would be a waterfall. Northwest-looking photograph of the Vaughn Lewis Icefall, a steep, 1,500 foot bedrock cliff over which the Vaughn Lewis Glacier descends from the upper Juneau Icefield, Tongass National Forest, Alaska.

A cascade of ice that results when a glacier descends over a changing slope of ground beneath.

A heavily crevassed area in a glacier at a region of steep descent.

a steep part of a glacier resembling a frozen waterfall

an area of rapid movement on a steep slope with extensive open crevassing

a phenomenon found in some glaciers

When glaciers travel over steep ground, their surfaces become chaotically fractured with crevasses and seracs. Such regions are best avoided whenever possible

The fractured, tumultuous, unstable part of a glacier, where it flows over a relatively steep drop.

That portion of a glacier where a sudden steepening of descent causes a chaotic breaking up of the ice.

part of a glacier with rapid flow and a chaotic crevassed surface; occurs where the glacier bed steepenes or narrows. Icefalls on three parallel glaciers. (Photo courtesy of Tom Lowell, University of Cincinnati.)

An icefall is a portion of some glaciers characterized by rapid flow and a chaotic crevassed surface. Perhaps the most conspicuous consequence of glacier flow, icefalls occur where the glacier bed steepens and/or narrows. The term icefall is formed by analogy with the word waterfall, a similar, but much higher speed, flow phenomenon.