Sea Ice on Earth

Ice that forms from freezing seawater extends over a large portion of Earth's polar regions. Comparing the geometry and motions of these more familiar ice floes to those observed on Europa contributes greatly to our understanding of crustal movements.

A Landsat image (top) shows an extensive area of fractured sea ice in the Antarctic's Weddell Sea. Images taken from the deck of a research ship in the Arctic's Bering Sea (bottom) offer further similarities to Europa. A prominent crack (right) begins to develop in the thin triangular plate. The breakup and subsequent collision between ice floes (left) often produce ridges and tilted plates, similar to Europa's ice rafts.

These images of sea ice on Earth were obtained from the Sea Ice in the Polar Regions & The Arctic Observatory CD-ROM, released in 1996 by CIESIN, the Office of Naval Research, and NASA.

Earth images from the Sea Ice in the Polar Regions & The Arctic Observatory CD-ROM, 1996 by CIESIN, ONR & NASA.