Larsen B ice shelf breaking away
A composite of four true-color images of Antarctica's Larsen B ice shelf collapsing into the Weddell Sea during January, February, and March of 2002. These images were captured on January 31 (top left); February 17 (top right); February 23 (bottom left), and March 5 (bottom right), as recorded by NASA's MODIS satellite sensor. The first image, from January 31, shows the shelf in late austral summer with dark bluish melt ponds dotting its surface. The next two images from February show a retreat taking place, amounting to about 800 square kilometers, during which time several of the melt ponds welled away from the ice front drain through new cracks within the shelf. The March 5 image reveals thousands of sliver icebergs and a large light blue area of very finely divided "bergy bits" where the shelf formerly lay. Brownish streaks within the floating chunks mark areas where rocks and morainal debris are exposed from the former underside and interior of the shelf.
Size: 4763px × 3911px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: antarctic, antarctica, bergy, bits, break-, breaking, breaking-, broken, change, climate, collapse, composite, cracks, disintegration, ecology, effect, environment, global, greenhouse, ice, iceberg, image, larsen, mass, melt, melting, peninsula, polar, pole, pond, satellite, science, sea, series, shelf, south, warming, weddell
