Petermania (V)

OK, it's one thing when automated satellites capture the Petermann Ice Island in their imaging, amazing as it might be.

It's quite another when a human being, orbiting the earth in a tube in the sky, does the same thing.

American astronaut Ron Garan, aboard the International Space Station, shot this picture yesterday from 387 kilometres above the surface of the earth.

Yes, you'll want to click this picture to enlarge it:


The Labrador coast from Denbigh Island to St. Lewis, along with several seasonally-occupied harbours, is visible on the left. The community of St. Lewis can be identified by the local airstrip, a straight linear feature visible between the harbour and Fox Harbour Pond, the largish lake in the middle of the peninsula.

Col. Garan's photo clearly shows the numerous meltwater lakes which dot the ice island's surface, as well as numerous smaller icebergs which have calved off the main body of ice. Several of these "small" icebergs are themselves large enough to be classified as ice islands, and would easily clog the entrance to St. Lewis or other harbours along the coast if they drifted inshore.

Jason Major at Universe Today put together a stunning graphic which shows an outline map of Manhattan at the same scale.