crevassing

The Dragon, which had resembled a slender windblown channel of ice from the air, was really a twomile-wide band of chaotic crevassing running for 40 miles down one side of the island.

It was first observed by members of the western party of the Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914), who were unable to reach it due to heavy crevassing on the Denman and Scott Glaciers.

The icefall was so named by the northern party of the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition, 1963-64, because the icefall's longitudinal system of parallel crevassing resembles the carcass of a whale when being flensed.