Image of the Day: Antarctic Collisions

An enormous iceberg, C-16, rammed into the well-known Drygalski Ice Tongue, a large sheet of glacial ice and snow in the Central Ross Sea in Antarctica, on March 30^th, breaking off the tongue's easternmost tip and forming a new iceberg.
 
This animation, comprised of images acquired by Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR), shows the iceberg and the ice tongue before and after the collision.

The floating Drygalski Ice Tongue, which protrudes 50 miles into the ocean, is connected to the David Glacier. If it were to break loose, scientists fear it could alter ocean currents and change the region's climate, scientists say.

--LiveScience Staff

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Credit:  ESA