This approximately true-color image shows ice fragments left over from previous breakups of the Wilkins Ice Shelf.
Published Apr 19, 2009
Rifts form a triple junction along the edge of a giant loose tooth in East Antarctica.
Published Feb 12, 2012
A narrow ice bridge connecting Charcot Island and Latady Island broke apart in April 2009.
Published Apr 8, 2009
On August 13, 2005, the Ayles Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island in northern Canada broke away from the island and floated out to sea. According to news reports, the break took less than an hour, and Luke Copland, director of the University of Ottawa’s Laboratory for Cryospheric Research, described the break as evidence of the Arctic’s rapid response to warming temperatures. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite observed the area before and after the ice shelf breakup.
Published Jan 13, 2007
Ice shelves are thick slabs of ice that are attached to coastlines and extend out over the ocean. In the natural course of events, ice shelves often calve large icebergs. On February 28, 2008, however, the Wilkins Ice Shelf rapidly disintegrated into small pieces.
Published Mar 27, 2008
This trio of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the rapid break up of the Serson Ice Shelf between July 28 and July 31.
Published Sep 11, 2008
Acquired August 18, 2010, and August 22, 2002, these natural-color images show changes on the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on Canada’s Ellesmere Coast.
Published Aug 27, 2010
When this closely watched slab of floating ice births a giant iceberg, it will not be the first time it has seen dramatic change.
Published Feb 7, 2017Image of the Day Heat Land Water Snow and Ice Sea and Lake Ice
As Southern Hemisphere summer approached, radar imagery from the European Space Agency revealed new cracks were continuously forming in the seaward edge of the Antarctic Peninsula's Wilkins Ice Shelf.
Published Dec 4, 2008
