A perfectly formed, rectangular ice sheet was spotted during a flyover in Antarctica on Oct. 16, NASA reported.'
The flyover was part of Operation IceBridge, which is NASA's aerial survey of polar ice. It originated from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Oct. 10. During the mission last week, senior support scientist Jeremy Harbeck spotted the sharply angular iceberg floating just off the Larsen C ice shelf.
"I thought it was pretty interesting; I often see icebergs with relatively straight edges, but I've not really seen one before with two corners at such right angles like this one had," Harbeck said in a statement.
The iceberg appears to be calved from Larsen C. In July 2017, it released a chunk of ice the size of the state of Delaware, NASA said.
“I was actually more interested in capturing the A68 iceberg that we were about to fly over, but I thought this rectangular iceberg was visually interesting and fairly photogenic, so on a lark, I just took a couple photos,” Harbeck said.
The flight is scheduled to end Nov. 18, NASA said.
About the Author
