Antarctica 03/17-28/00

MODIS true color images of Antarctica

MODIS bands 1, 4, 3 RGB true color images of Antarctica.

A massive iceberg (known as B-15) broke off the Ross Ice Shelf near Roosevelt Island in Antarctica in mid-March 2000. Top Left image: March 3, before the calving; Top Right image: March 17, just after the calving; Bottom Left image: March 20; Bottom Right image: March 28, just after the calving of B-17, a comparatively small chunk to the left of B-15. Among the largest ever observed, the B-15 iceberg is approximately 300 km long and 40 km wide — an area about twice the size of the state of Delaware. The iceberg was formed from glacier ice moving off the Antarctic continent. The ice calved along pre-existing cracks in the Ross Ice Shelf.

Text courtesy of NASA's MODIS Web Image Gallery.