NASA Spots Rectangular Iceberg in Antarctica

During Operation IceBridge, NASA's longest-running aerial survey of polar ice, photos of a very sharp-angled, tabular iceberg were captured over the northern Antarctic Peninsula on October 16, 2018. This iceberg was found by senior support scientist Jeremy Harbeck just off of the Larsen C Ice Shelf.

NASA scientists explained later that the process that formed this iceberg is actually fairly common. Tabular icebergs are wide and flat, like sheet cake. They split from the edges of ice shelves through a process that is relatable like a fingernail growing too long and cracking off at the end. This often makes them rectangular and geometric as a result.

A second iceberg spotted by Jeremy Harbeck. Image Credit: NASA/Harbeck

“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. “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."

Read more about this fascinating story at:

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2018/2-rectangular-icebergs-spotted-on-nasa-icebridge-flight

https://www.space.com/42234-weird-square-iceberg-antarctica.html

Image Credit: NASA/Jeremy Harbeck