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Where is it?Itilliarsuup Kangerlua fjord , Greenland [ 70.72910805 , -50.71839266 ] .
What ’s in the photo?A mysterious moving ridge , or arc , undulate across the fjord ’s surface .
Researchers spotted a mysterious wave (the white arc in this photo) rippling across the surface of a Greenland fjord last year. However, they are unsure what caused it.
Which satellite accept the photo?Landsat 9 .
When was it taken?August 3 , 2023 .
This salient artificial satellite photo trance a mysterious arc in an ethereal , iceberg - underwrite fjord deeply within theArctic Circle . Researchers purport several potential explanations for the bizarre phenomenon , but we will in all probability never find out for certain what caused it .
Similar wave patterns were seen when an iceberg calved from another Greenland glacier in 2021.
The Itilliarsuup Kangerlua fjord is part of the Uummannaq Fjord organisation in Western Greenland , around 460 miles ( 740 kilometers ) north of the country ’s capital Nuuk . The narrow waterway , which is around 1.6 miles ( 2.6 km ) long , was carved by two glaciers , Sisoortartukassak and Kangilleq , which are divide by a small island at the base of the fjord , according toNASA ’s Earth Observatory .
During the summertime , the fiord ’s surface becomes littered with thousands of flyspeck iceberg fragments that have sloughed off from the glaciers , make the urine look like a starscape from a deep - field telescope paradigm when reckon from above . However , the most interesting feature in the image is a thin white arc that spans across the fiord . This discharge is most likely a displacement wave that was traveling up the fjord away from the ice spate , according to the Earth Observatory .
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The wafture may have been make by a large chunk of ice breaking off from the Kangilleq glacier and falling into the water — similar to the ripples you see when you discombobulate a Edward Durell Stone into a perfectly still lake .
" To me , it does look like a wafture due to a calving event,“Josh Willis , an oceanographer atNASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , state the Earth Observatory . The " perfect shape " of the arc and predilection of the waving are exchangeable to those of break up upshot observed in other glaciers , he added .
Dan Shugar , a geomorphologist at the University of Calgary , andMike Wood , a glaciologist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California , also believe the arc was the outcome of a calving event , accord to the Earth Observatory .
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However , the wave could also be do by an " underwater plume " come from the Kangilleq glacier , Willis said . Such plumes are made from fresh meltwater that enters piquant fiord water from beneath the glacier and rises to the surface , displacing the water around it , he total .
But it is strong to be certain what induce the wave without more data . " Based on satellite images alone , it might never be bed with certainty what do [ the ] short-lived feature , " Earth Observatory representative wrote .
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