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Where is it?Flade Isblink trash hood , northeasterly Greenland [ 81.298483222 , -16.071359543 ]
What ’s in the photo?A ghostly - looking indentation in the snow
The ghostly figure, which scientists referred to as “the mitten,” appeared at some point between Aug. 16 and Sept. 6, 2011. It was around 2 miles tall.
Which satellite took the photo?Landsat 8
When was it taken?June 21 , 2014
Scientists were shocked when they light upon a large , ghostly shape that short appear in orbiter image of Greenland 13 years ago . The icy phantasm was created by a depression in the snow - covered Earth’s surface , which formed when an underground lake turn up directly beneath the figure fall in .
This aerial photo taken on April 26, 2013 shows what the mitten looked like close-up.
The blobby phantasma , which looked like a shapeless figure waving up at outer space , was spotted in the Flade Isblink ice cap — a approximately 3,300 - square - Roman mile ( 8,550 hearty kilometers ) ice cap sitting on Greenland ’s northernmost coastline , deep within the Arctic Circle . The icy trap was around 2 miles ( 3 kilometers ) long and just over 1 mile ( 2 km ) across its broad point , and was 230 foot ( 70 measure ) deep when it first appeared , according toNASA ’s Earth Observatory .
The spooky structure , which researchers also referred to as " the mitten " due to its mitt - like shape , formed at some detail between Aug. 16 and Sept. 6 , 2011 , when the area was obscured by cloud covering fire in artificial satellite photograph .
In a2015 paper , researchers give away that the depression appeared when a subglacial lake rapidly drained of water , leave alone behind an clandestine cavern that fleetly collapsed . At the peak of this drain effect , scientists estimated that 7,600 three-dimensional feet ( 215 three-dimensional beat ) of water get by the lake every second .
This event was " perhaps the first register instance of a rapid drainage of a subglacial lake in Greenland,“Kelly Brunt , a glaciologist atNASA ’s Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory who was not involved in the study , told NASA ’s Earth Observatory in 2015 . The majority of alike submerged lakes in the nation are take to be very static , she add .
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researcher continued to monitor the imprint , and in 2022 , afollow - up studyrevealed that the subglacial lake had been slowly refilling since 2012 . By 2021 , the floor of the depression had uprise by 180 feet ( 55 MB ) — rise to 50 foot ( 15 m ) below the palisade ice — despite a 2d , smaller draining event in 2019 .
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research worker initially believe the majority of the pee that reentered the lake hail from surface meltwater that trickle down below the ground . However , calculations subsequently revealed that meltwater could only calculate for 65 % of the water in the lake , meaning some other unknown origin of water system was also at oeuvre .
It is still unclear why the subglacial lake drained so quickly in 2011 . However , researchers suspect that human - caused climate modification may have played a role .
Several subglacial lakes in Antarctica have alsoundergone similar collapses in recent years , and scientist fear that the escaping watercould further speed up ice lossin some areas .
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