NASA scientists are watching a giant crack forming over a vulnerable Antarctic glacier at theice shelf of the Pine Island Glacier and think it will soon break off into an iceberg the size of New York City.
NASA’s airborne expedition over Antarctica this October and November has measured the change in glaciers vital to sea level rise projections and mapped others rarely traversed by humans.
Operation IceBridge, nearing completion of its third year, is the largest airborne campaign ever flown over the world’s polar regions. Bridging a gap between two ice elevation mapping satellites, and breaking new scientific ground on its own, IceBridge this fall has charted the continued rapid acceleration and mass loss of Pine Island Glacier.
A Douglas DC-8 that appears to be outfitted with two jet engines instead of the usual four engines. (See FAA Registry N817NA).
A NASA DC-8 flew over most of the 18-mile stretch of the crack on Oct. 26, 2011. For most of the crack, the opening stretched about 240 feet wide. The deepest points ranged from about 165 to 190 feet, roughly equal to the top of the ice shelf down to sea level. Scientists expect the crack to propagate and the ice shelf to calve an iceberg of more than 300 square miles in the coming months.
See also …
NASA Airborne Mission Maps Remote, Deteriorating Glaciers