A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1039 entries
serac
A tower or pinnacle of ice, formed where a glacier fractures into chaotic blocks as it flows over a steep drop — an icefall. Seracs are unstable, beautiful, and lethal. They can be the size of houses, standing at improbable angles, and they collapse without warning.
Etymology
French, from Swiss French sérac, a type of compact, crumbly white cheese. The broken, blocky ice was thought to resemble the cheese. The word is purely Alpine.
Notes
One of the great etymologies — a tower of ice named after cheese curds.