Ice jams in the Buckland River

Ice jams in the Buckland River Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features northwest Alaska, where ice blocked the flow of the Buckland River on May 12, 2021. As a result, the native village of Buckland experienced the worst flooding to hit the region in 20 years.

According to NASA, ice jams commonly occur in Arctic regions during the springtime when snow and ice melt quickly. When the ice breaks up, large chunks can move downstream and clog narrow parts of rivers.  North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be described as the northern subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. Because it is on the North American Tectonic Plate, Greenland is included as part of North America geographically. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), about 16.5% of the Earth’s land area and about 4.8% of its total surface. North America is the third-largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 579 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world’s population. Therefore the weather is warmer.

Ice jams in the Buckland River By noon on May 13, the Buckland River crested at least 12 feet above normal. The image was captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory 

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer