Birth of a Large Iceberg in Pine Island Bay, Antarctica

A large tabular iceberg (42 kilometers x 17 kilometers) broke off Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica (75ºS latitude, 102ºW longitude) sometime between November 4 and 12, 2001. Images of the glacier were acquired by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft. This event was preceded by the formation of a large crack across the glacier in mid 2000. Data gathered by other imaging instruments revealed the crack to be propagating through the shelf ice at a rate averaging 15 meters per day, accompanied by a slight rotation of about one percent per year at the seaward margin of the rift. The image set shows three views of Pine Island Glacier acquired by MISR's vertical-viewing (nadir) camera. The first was captured in late 2000, early in the development of the crack. The second and third views were acquired in November 2001, just before and just after the new iceberg broke off. The existence of the crack took the glaciological community by surprise, and the rapid rate at which the crack propagated was also not anticipated. Glaciologists predicted that the rift would reach the other side of the glacier sometime in 2002. However, the iceberg detached much sooner than anticipated, and the last 10-kilometer segment that was still attached to the ice shelf snapped off in a matter of days. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03431