This summertime , a massive crackfinallybroke apart Antarctica ’s Larsen C sparkler ledge , creatingone of the earth ’s largest icebergs , called A-68 . NASA has read plenty ofsatellite imagesof the area , but now , thanks to flight by the agency’sOperation IceBridge , we have confining - ups too , asThe Washington Postreports .
Operation IceBridge is NASA ’s undertaking to survey and represent the condition of pivotal ice via plane . The project is run away several survey missionsout of Argentinaand from scientific bases at the South Pole this pin , using gravimeters , magnetometers , and other sensors to measure change in polar Methedrine . They have direct a few flight so far that put across over Larsen C , the most late will from Ushuaia , Argentina , on November 12 .
Aerial IceBridge exposure taken in the last few week show the massive size of the methamphetamine hydrochloride ledge and the iceberg it calve this summertime . " Most icebergs I have ascertain appear comparatively small and blockish , and the entire part of the berg that rebel above the ocean surface is seeable at once , ” Kathryn Hansen , a member of NASA ’s news team , write on NASA’sEarth Observatoryblog after pick up A-68 for herself on the most recent IceBridge flight . “ Not this berg . A-68 is so heroic it appears [ as ] if it were still part of the methamphetamine shelf . ”
NASAtweeted outthese incredible images from IceBridge ’s October 31 flight sooner this calendar month .
The November 12 flight was direct at mapping the bedrock below the polar sparkler with NASA ’s gravity meter , but the scientists still have more research plan . Additional IceBridge flight will be leaving from Antarctica later this month , call for datum with dissimilar cat’s-paw than the flights that bequeath out of Argentina .
[ h / tThe Washington Post ]
