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Mapping
the World
Malaspina
Glacier in
southeastern
Alaska is
considered
the
classic
example of
a piedmont
glacier.
Piedmont
glaciers
occur
where
valley
glaciers
exit a
mountain
range onto
broad
lowlands
and spread
to become
wide
lobes.
Malaspina
Glacier is
actually a
compound
glacier,
formed by
the merger
of several
valley
glaciers.
In total,
Malaspina
Glacier is
up to 40
miles wide
and
extends up
to 28
miles from
the
mountain
front
nearly to
the sea.
This
perspective
view was
created
from a
Landsat
satellite
image and
an
elevation
model
generated
by the
Shuttle
Radar
Topography
Mission (SRTM).
The SRTM
mission,
launched
aboard the
Space
Shuttle
Endeavour
on
February
11, 2000,
was
designed
to collect
three-dimensional
measurements
of the
Earth's
surface.
Landsat
views both
visible
and
infrared
light,
which have
been
combined
here into
a color
composite
that
generally
shows
glacial
ice in
light
blue, snow
in white,
vegetation
in green,
bare rock
in grays
and tans,
and the
ocean
(foreground)
in dark
blue. The
back
(northern)
edge of
the data
set forms
a false
horizon
that meets
a false
sky. |
