Stunning NASA Photo Shows How Icebergs Are Made
The world's glacial ice is constantly on the move.
Researchers flying above the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica on November 10 captured an image that shows the progressive break of the massive ice block. NASA shared that there will eventually be an iceberg that pulls from the shelf, and the 300-foot-wide crack that's seen in this photo is all a part of that process.
This event is called glacial calving, reported Mashable, which essentially describes the breaking off of ice chunks from larger bodies of ice. Researchers were exploring this ice shelf as a part of Icebridge, a regular airborne survey of the Earth's ice.
The IceBridge scientists measured the Larsen C fracture to be about 70 miles long, more than 300 feet wide and about a third of a mile deep, according to a statement from NASA. The crack completely cuts through the ice shelf but it does not go all the way across itonce it does, it will produce an iceberg roughly the size of the state of Delaware.
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