A newly calved iceberg, an ice avalanche in Tibet and urban growth in Nairobi were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month

This striking image shows the Caspian Sea, with shallow waters surrounding the Tyuleniy archipelago revealing dark green vegetation on the sea floor. Ocean scientist Norman Kuring of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center found a puzzling feature in the image – lines crisscrossing the sea bottom. What caused those lines? Similar lines show up in the world’s oceans because of trawling. But the scientific literature and a January satellite image suggest that a majority of the marks in the images were gouged by ice. In January, blocks of ice stand at the leading end of many lines, most notably in the north-east corner of the image. By April, ice has melted and only the scour marks persist.

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Source: Guardian Environment