Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier, Iceland
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center - Earthshots
The Breiðamerkurjökull glacier tongue, one of the largest in Iceland, flows from Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest glacier. According to descriptions in historical accounts, this glacier tongue advanced toward the Atlantic Ocean up until the turn of the 19th century. Since about 1930, it has been in full retreat.
In these false color Landsat images, vegetated land surfaces appear red. Snow and ice are white. The Vatnajökull glacier is the bright white area in the upper left. Outlet glaciers streak away from it toward the Atlantic Ocean in the lower right. Breiðamerkurjökull is the largest glacial tongue on Vatnajökull and is featured in the center of these images.
(Black stripes run through the 2006 image because of the Scan Line Corrector failure on Landsat 7 in May 2003.)
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