Earth  ID: 3127

Pine Island Glacier Calving (WMS)

Visualizations by Lori Perkins Released on March 9, 2005
The Pine Island Glacier is the largest discharger of ice in Antarctica and the continent's fastest moving glacier. Even so, when a large crack formed across the glacier in mid 2000, it was surprising how fast the crack expanded, 15 meters per day, and how soon the resulting iceberg broke off, mid-November, 2001. This iceberg, called B-21, is 42 kilometers by 17 kilometers and contains seven years of glacier outflow released to the sea in a single event. This series of images from the MISR instrument on the Terra satellite not only shows the crack expanding and the iceberg breaking off, but the seaward moving glacial flow in the parts of the Pine Island Glacier upstream of the crack.
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Breakoff of iceberg B-21 from the Pine Island glacier shown in imagery acquired by MISR

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Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Bob Bindschadler (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Dave Diner (NASA/JPL CalTech): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3127

Mission:
Terra

Data Used:
Terra/MISR
2000/09/16, 2000/11/28, 2000/12/12, 2001/01/01, 2001/01/22, 2001/02/25, 2002/090/08, /2001/10/10, 2001/10/26, 2001/11/04, 2001/11/09, 2001/11/11, 2001/11/12
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This item is part of this series:
WMS

Keywords:
DLESE >> Cryology
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Glaciers/Ice Sheets >> Icebergs
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Icebergs
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Motion
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0