Edge gap

Many meters wide rift between the east face of the Watzmann and the snow of the ice chapel

Mountaineers on the edge of the Höllentalferner gorge

The edge gap designated at a glacial or snow field the often present at the top and side edge deep gap between the ice and the final rock. The edge fissure is created by the melting of the ice on the warmer rock. The marginal chasm therefore becomes wider and wider in the course of the summer and is then usually more difficult to negotiate for mountaineers. Edge fissures are often found on comparatively low-lying glaciers, such as the blue ice in the Berchtesgaden Alps or the Höllentalferner in the Wetterstein .

The bergschrund , which forms in high-altitude glaciers at the point where it is torn off by the flowing movement of the ice frozen on the rock, must be distinguished from the marginal chasm.

See also: crevasse

literature

• Joachim Weiß (Red.): The Brockhaus in ten volumes . Volume 3, Brockhaus, Leipzig / Mannheim 2005, ISBN 3-7653-2453-1 , p. 2195.

Web links

• Image of the edge of the Höllentalferner