This false-color satellite image of Malaspina Glacier (Sít’ Tlein) is a riot of color. Composed of coastal/aerosol, near infrared, and shortwave infrared bands from Landsat 9, the colors highlight features otherwise hard to identify. Watery features appear in reds, oranges, and yellows; vegetation is green and rock appears in blue. The glacier covers more than 4000 square kilometers, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. The dark lines atop the glacier are moraines, where rock, soil, and other debris has been scraped up along the glacier’s edge. Over time, changes in the glacier’s velocity cause the moraines to fold and shear, creating the zigzag pattern seen here. (Image credit: W. Liang; via NASA Earth Observatory)
Fire in Ice
