Nov
2
A close-up image of the crack spreading across the ice shelf of Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier shows the details of the boulder-like blocks of ice that fell into the rift when it split.
For most of the 18-mile stretch of the crack that NASA’s DC-8 flew over on Oct. 26, 2011, it stretched about 240 feet wide. Scientists expect the crack to propagate and the ice shelf to calve an iceberg of more than 300 square miles in the coming months.
NASA’s Operation IceBridge is in its third year of flights over Antarctica’s changing sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets. The mission is designed to record changes to Antarctica’s ice sheets and give scientists insight into what is driving those changes.
