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The survey, named Operation IceBridge, is designed to monitor changes in ice levels over several Antarctic glaciers.
It was during one of these regular surveillance flights that the lead scientist, Jeremy Harbeck, spotted an unusually angular iceberg floating just off the Larsen ice floe.
The image, shared on NASA's social network account, sparked questions as to whether it was a natural event.
Jan Lieser, a marine glaciologist at the Center for Cooperative Research on Climate and Ecosystems of Antarctica, said it was not unusual to see straight lines and sharp angles on the ice sheets.
"It's a natural phenomenon, it's beautiful, but nothing extraordinary … I've seen a lot of icebergs around Antarctica that have sides." very straight, very long, "he said.
Lieser said the straight lines are due to the structure of the snow crystals, the way they separate and react to the stresses.
"Nobody runs with a chainsaw and cuts it … Nature sometimes adopts right angles," he said.
"We were about to fly over but we thought it was visually interesting and quite photogenic, so on a lark, I just took some pictures," Harbeck said.
"The sharp angles and flat surface of the iceberg indicate that he was probably recently calved from the pack ice."
This deployment of IceBridge is expected to be completed by November 18, according to NASA.
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