File:Tasman Glacier 2011 CHCH Quake.jpg
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake that ravaged Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 22, 2011, also broke a 30 million-ton piece of ice off the Tasman Glacier. The ice broke into many smaller icebergs after falling into Tasman Lake. By the time the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image on March 2, the icebergs had congregated at the far end of the lake.
In the false-color image, plant-covered land is red. The dirt-coated glacier is dark brown, matching the exposed rock in the surrounding Southern Alps. White snow tops the mountains to the west, and the river and lake—clouded with finely ground rock—are silver.