Ice floes off of Urup Island as Seen From Orbit

Ice floes off the northeastern tip of Urup Island, Russia are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member on the International Space Station. From space, it is sometimes difficult to tell where land ends and sea ice begins in the southern Sea of Okhotsk. This is particularly evident in this detailed photograph of the northeastern tip of Urup Island; one of the many islands is the Kuril chain that extends from northern Japan to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia.

Ice floes off the northeastern tip of Urup Island, Russia are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member on the International Space Station. From space, it is sometimes difficult to tell where land ends and sea ice begins in the southern Sea of Okhotsk. This is particularly evident in this detailed photograph of the northeastern tip of Urup Island; one of the many islands is the Kuril chain that extends from northern Japan to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The majority of the approximately 120-kilometer long island extends to the southwest from the point illustrated in the image; like the other Kuril Islands, it was formed from volcanic processes along the active subduction boundary between the Pacific and Okhotsk tectonic plates.

The northeastern tip of the island and three small islands to the northeast are recognizable by their uniform cover of white snow and shadowing along the northwestern coastlines. Sea ice formed to the north in the Sea of Okhotsk has been piled up against the islands by prevailing northwesterly winds, forming an irregular mass connecting the islands (top center). The orientation of patchy low clouds over Urup Island (lower left) also suggest that northwesterly winds are present. Smaller ice floes are breaking off from the main ice mass at gaps between the islands and forming fingerlike projections of ice fragments that extend to the southeast (bottom center).

Surface winds may be channeled through these gaps and accelerated, hastening the breakup and movement of ice. high res (1.0 M) low res (55 K)