Nasa photos show mysterious new cracks in Greenland glaciers

A photo of a new rift valley was taken directly below the iceberg plane. Gary Hoffman/DMS/ NASA) One of the largest glaciers in Greenland has a new crack, and NASA researchers have taken the first photo of the mysterious crack.

Operation Ice Bridge, NASA's polar ice aerial survey, recently completed the land ice mission in northwest Greenland. In this mission, the researchers flew over the center of the ice shelf of Peterman Glacier (the floating end of the glacier) and photographed a new crack. In the survey photos, the new crack seems to be relatively close to a larger known crack, which is spreading to the center of the ice shelf. [Beautiful glaciers in Greenland]

If two cracks intersect, a part of the Peterman glacier ice shelf may break, but the researchers of Operation Iceberg said in a Facebook article that the "middle streamline" (the ice flow in the middle of the ice shelf) can prevent the new cracks from moving forward.

Peterman is one of the largest glaciers in Greenland, which has shrunk in recent years. The previous ice gap caused a large number of icebergs to leave the glacier. In 20 12, an iceberg the size of Manhattan broke away from the ice shelf of the glacier. In 20 10, another iceberg with an area four times that of Manhattan fell or collapsed from Peterman. According to life science, this is one of the largest rift valleys in Greenland's history.

It is a part of the new rift in the center of the Peterman glacier ice shelf (a straight line near the bottom center) and an older rift from the side of the ice shelf (near the top center), which was photographed in the recent iceberg operation in northeastern Greenland. According to * * *(Kelly Brunt/ NASA), the new rift of this glacier was discovered by Stef lhermite, a professor of earth science at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, while studying satellite images of this area. Lhermitte told * * that Lhermitte provided the coordinates of the crack for "Operation Iceberg" so that researchers could conduct aerial surveys of the ice shelf.

"After studying in space for a few days, it is amazing to see this crack from nearby." From these pictures alone, it is difficult for us to tell what caused the cracks in this unusual place.

Glaciers usually crack along their edges. According to * * *, lhermite speculated that the cracks in the center of the ice shelf may be caused by the warming of seawater under the ice shelf. Elsewhere in the world, researchers have observed that warm seawater is melting the ice shelf and weakening its center. A recent study of the Song Dao Glacier in Antarctica shows that the underground cracks in the glacier are probably caused by melting under the ice shelf.

Original articles on life sciences.