1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bergschrund

BERGSCHRUND (Ger. Berg, mountain; Schrund, cleft or crevice), a gaping crack in the upper part of a snowfield or glacier, near the rock wall, caused by the glacier moving bodily away from the mountain-side as the mass settles downwards. The crack is roughly parallel to the rock-face of the upper edge of the glacier basin, and extends downwards to the solid rock beneath the glacier where at the bottom of this huge crevasse there are blocks of ice, and large pieces of rock torn off by the lower portion of the glacier from the rock wall and floor.