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.
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.
Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery analyzed at the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center revealed that the northern section of the Larsen B ice shelf, a large floating ice mass on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, has shattered and separated from the continent. This particular image was taken on March 5, 2002.
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.
Acquired in 2003, 2004,and 2005, these images show an intermittently ice-filled bay in the wake of the 2002 collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula.