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New NASA photos offer closer look at bizarre rectangular Antarctic icebergs

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Just past the rectangular iceberg, which is visible from behind the outboard engine, IceBridge saw another relatively rectangular berg and the A68 iceberg in the distance
Large tabular icebergs located between Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf and the A-68 ice island. Photo taken on October 16, 2018
Large tabular icebergs located between Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf and the A-68 ice island. Photo taken on October 16, 2018
Large tabular icebergs located between Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf and the A-68 ice island. Photo taken on October 16, 2018
A satellite image of the "square" iceberg area, with an arrow identifying the iceberg in question
Just past the rectangular iceberg, which is visible from behind the outboard engine, IceBridge saw another relatively rectangular berg and the A68 iceberg in the distance
This panorama of the entire tabular iceberg was edited together from two images taken while flying past the berg. Images taken during an Operation IceBridge flight over the northern Antarctic Peninsula on Oct. 16, 2018
The original photo of the rectangular iceberg
A large field of tabular sea ice floes. Photo taken during an Operation IceBridge flight on Apr. 4, 2018
This image was taken in April 2018. It shows how a large iceberg can break sea ice resulting in flat floes of different shapes
View gallery - 9 images

A few days ago NASA's IceBridge project hit the news, but not for any of its impressive scientific observations. Instead, a casually tweeted photo of a strange rectangular iceberg captured people's imagination. Now, NASA has offered up a few more shots, and video, of this unusual sight, helping explain this common yet rarely seen phenomenon.

Known as a tabular iceberg, this sharp-angled piece of floating sea ice was seen during an IceBridge flight on October 16th. The flight was specifically surveying changes in glaciers draining into the Larsen A, B and C embayments. This particular iceberg, seen near the Larsen C ice shelf was spotted by scientist Jeremy Harbeck during the flight.

The original photo of the rectangular iceberg

"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," explains Harbeck.

The Larsen C ice shelf is a hotspot of activity in Antarctica, having made major news last year with one of the largest icebergs ever observed breaking off the shelf. The iceberg was dubbed A68, and this latest IceBridge flight was flying towards the massive stretch of floating ice.

This panorama of the entire tabular iceberg was edited together from two images taken while flying past the berg. Images taken during an Operation IceBridge flight over the northern Antarctic Peninsula on Oct. 16, 2018

"I was actually more interested in capturing the A68 iceberg that we were about to fly over," says Harbeck, "but I thought this rectangular iceberg was visually interesting and fairly photogenic, so on a lark, I just took a couple photos."

Despite the uncannily sharp right angles on the iceberg giving the impression it must have artificial origins, this is in fact a natural formation, and even a quite common one. The sharp angles on this particular iceberg suggest it very recently calved from a larger body of ice. Wind, water and temperature have not had time to degrade its crisp lines, so the rare timing of the IceBridge flight allowed a view of an exceptionally pristine tabular iceberg.

Large tabular icebergs located between Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf and the A-68 ice island. Photo taken on October 16, 2018

Subsequent aerial photos released by NASA (which can be viewed in our gallery) from that same IceBridge flight reveal this particular iceberg is just one of many that seem to have calved off from A68, now referred to by the researchers as an "ice island."

Take a look at a video below, shot from the nose of IceBridge aircraft, as it approaches and flies over the tabular iceberg.

Source: NASA

View gallery - 9 images
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2 comments
ljaques
That's one huge ice cube making machine down there.
(Mother Nature can make some mean ice cubes, can't she?)
guzmanchinky
It's the monolith in white. Don't touch it. Look what happened to Bowman.