A crevasse is a crack in the surface of a glacier caused by extensive stress within the ice. For example, extensive stress can be caused by stretching if the glacier is speeding up as it flows down the valley. Crevasses can also be caused by the ice flowing over bumps or steps in the bedrock.

How are crevices made?

A crevasse is a deep crack, crevice or fissure found in an ice sheet or glacier, or earth. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rates of movement.

How do crevasses form in snow?

Crevasses form because the glacier is flowing over a rough uneven surface. Frozen water, as you know, does not easily pour. Thus as the thick sheet of ice moves down the mountain cracks open up in the brittle ice sheet.