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Album: Stunning Photos of Antarctic Ice

By Planet Earth 

The Beauty of the Antarctic

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

Shown above is an iceberg in Gerlache Strait. Photographer: Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren, NOAA Corps (ret.).

Huge Block of Ice

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

Pictured above is an iceberg off the Antarctic Peninsula. The size of the iceberg appears to be similar to that of a cruise ship. Photographer: Commander Richard Behn, NOAA Corps.

Mysterious and Captivating

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

An iceberg sits in the middle of the cool Arctic waters. Photographer: Michael Van Woert, NOAA NESDIS, ORA.

On the Move

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

The image shows an Iceberg drifting slowly across the waters. Photographer: Michael Van Woert, NOAA NESDIS, ORA.

Massive Chunk

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

Above is a photograph of a large tabular iceberg off the Antarctic Peninsula. Photographer: Commander Richard Behn, NOAA Corps.

Stranded

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

Icebergs grounded on Pennel Bank. Photographer: Michael Van Woert, NOAA NESDIS, ORA.

Closing In

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

Close-up of Icebergs grounded on Pennel Bank. Photographer: Michael Van Woert, NOAA NESDIS, ORA.

Follow the Leader

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

Note the arches in the icebergs off the Antarctic Peninsula. The icebergs are slowly moving along the waters. Photographer: Commander Richard Behn, NOAA Corps.

Views From Above

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)

Flying over large tabular icebergs on the way to McMurdo Sound. Photographer: Mr. Ardo X. Meyer, NOAA (ret.).

Formation of an Iceberg

(Image credit: Image Courtesy of Landsat 7 project)

Icebergs form when they are broken off from a glacier or an ice shelf. Here is an example of an iceberg breaking from a glacier. More than a decade ago a large iceberg (over a thousand square miles in area, and a quarter of a mile thick) broke off an Antarctic glacier and drifted into the Southern Ocean. This true color Landsat 7 image shows relatively small icebergs "calving" off the edge of B10A. The new icebergs drifted into international shipping lanes, posing a threat.

Point of Separation

(Image credit: Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Team)

In this picture, two large icebergs, designated B-15A and C-16, are captured in this Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) nadir camera view of the Ross Ice Shelf and Ross Sea in Antarctica. B-15A is the largest chunk left of a bigger iceberg, known as B-15 that broke off the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000. That initial frozen hunk was about the size of Jamaica. At 71 miles (115 kilometers) long, B-15A is the largest free-floating object in the world. The image was acquired on December 10, 2000, prior to when B-15A broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf.