Nearly 11 months after breaking off of the northwestern coast of Greenland, a massive ice island is now caught up in ocean currents off the coast of Labrador, Canada. The ice island was formed when a large mass of ice broke away of the Petermann Glacier, on 5 August 2010. The Canadian Ice Service has since been monitoring the ice island, known as PII-A, via satellite and radio beacon.
NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the above natural-color image of the ice island, on 25 June 2011. To the southwest, the coast of Labrador is mostly obscured by thin, wispy clouds.
The media reported that the ice island extended roughly 62 km2 in area, and weighed between 3.5 and 4 billion tons. The island has been slowly disintegrating and melting, on its 3,000-km-journey, but it could eventually threaten offshore oil platforms and shipping lanes off Canadian Newfoundland island.
On 17 September 2010, Environment Canada observed PII-A, applying a beacon. Satellite images of the area around Newfoundland are available twice daily.
References
Earth Observatory Image of the Day
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=51264
Wikipedia