Roughly 20,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet smothered what is now southern New England beneath a thick layer of ice.
Roughly 20,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet smothered what is now southern New England beneath a thick layer of ice. The leading edge of this hulking mass plowed into the landscape as it advanced, depositing piles of debris called terminal moraines at its southernmost extent. These piles of glacial till became the foundation for the archipelago of islands that now flank southern New England: Long Island, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Block Island.
Block Island is visible in these images, acquired on July 3, 2024, by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8. The pear-shaped island, located about 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of mainland Rhode Island, is about 6 miles long and 3.5 miles wide. Roughly 1,400 people live on Block Island, mostly in the town of New Shoreham. A combination of sunlight and a phytoplankton bloom made the wakes trailing behind the many boats near the island especially visible at the time of this image.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
