EARTH Greenland -- 16-17 Jul 2012 -- The Petermann Glacier (top centre left) on the sea along the northwestern coast of Greenland

EARTH Greenland -- 16-17 Jul 2012 -- The Petermann Glacier (top centre left) on the sea along the northwestern coast of Greenland, terminating in a giant floating ice tongue. Like other glaciers that end in the ocean, Petermann periodically calves icebergs. A massive iceberg, or ice island, broke off of the Petermann Glacier in 2010. Nearly two years later, another chunk of ice has broken free. The NASA Aqua satellite observed the new iceberg calving and drifting downstream on July 16–17, 2012. Because Aqua is a polar-orbiting satellite, it makes multiple passes over the Polar Regions each day. At 10:25 UTC on July 16 , the iceberg was still close to the glacier. At 12:00 UTC that same day, the berg had started moving northward down the fjord. Thin clouds partially obscure the downstream view. One day later, at 09:30 UTC on July 17, Aqua spied a larger opening between the glacier and the iceberg, as well as some breakup of the thinner, downstream ice. The iceberg appears to have made a slight counter-clockwise turn -- Picture by Lightroom Photos/NASA