Petermann Ice Island-A Splits, Drifts

Petermann Ice Island-A Splits, Drifts

Fragments of the Petermann Ice Island-A (PII-A) continued drifting off the coast of Newfoundland on August 22, 2011, after the ice island split in two. Almost two hours after the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite observed the ice island fragments, MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture.

Relative to their positions earlier in the day, when Aqua passed overhead the fragments of PII-A were slightly farther from Bell Island, and slightly farther from each other, both having drifted westward.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.