Thurston Island

The Thurston Island calving front off of western Antarctica as seen from the window of NASA's DC-8 on Nov. 5, 2014.

Image Credit: NASA/Jim Yungel

NASA’s Operation IceBridge collected some rare images on a flight out of Punta Arenas, Chile on Nov. 5, 2014, on a science flight over western Antarctica dubbed Ferrigno-Alison-Abbott 01. The crew snapped a few shots of a calving front of the Antarctic ice sheet. This particular flight plan was designed to collect data on changes in ice elevation along the coast near the Ferrigno and Alison ice streams, on the Abbot Ice Shelf, and grounded ice along the Eights Coast.