NASA ISS Image: Brüggen Glacier in southern Chile

The Expedition 3 crew of the International Space Station caught a rare glimpse of the massive ice fields and glaciers of Patagonia early in the afternoon on September 25, 2001. 

This part of the South American coast sees frequent storms and is often obscured from view by cloud cover.

Brüggen Glacier in southern Chile is the largest western outflow from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and, unlike most glaciers worldwide, advanced significantly since 1945.

From 1945 to 1976, Brüggen surged 5 km across the Eyre Fjord, reaching the western shore by 1962 and cutting off Lake Greve from the sea.

The glacier continued advancing both northward and southward in the fjord to near its present position before stabilizing. 

The growth covers a distance of more than 10 km north to south, adding nearly 60 square km of ice.

Additional information on this and other Patagonian glaciers may be found from the United State Geological Survey from their information on “Historic Fluctuations of Outlet Glaciers from the Patagonian Ice Fields.”

Image Credit: Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center.

Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA-JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

East Antarctic temp plummets to -95C

East Antarctica has set a global record for soul-crushing cold, according to newly analysed data.

The remote region plunged as low as minus 94.7C (minus 135.8F) in August 2010, the Nasa satellite data revealed.

Then on July 31 this year, it came close again, at minus 92.9C (minus 135.3F). The old record was minus 89.2C (minus 128.6F).

Ice scientist Ted Scambos, at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre, announced the cold facts at the American Geophysical Union scientific meeting in San Francisco.

"It's more like you'd see on Mars on a nice summer day in the poles," Mr Scambos said. "I'm confident that these pockets are the coldest places on Earth."

However, it will not be in the Guinness Book of World Records because these were satellite-measured figures, not from thermometers, he added.

"Thank God, I don't know how exactly it feels," Mr Scambos said.

Most of the time researchers need to breathe through a snorkel that brings air into the coat through a sleeve and warms it up "so you don't inhale by accident" the cold air, Mr Scambos said.

Waleed Abdalati, an ice scientist at the University of Colorado and Nasa's former chief scientist, and Mr Scambos said this is likely to be an unusual random reading in a place that has not been measured much before and could have been colder or hotter in the past and we would not know.

"It does speak to the range of conditions on this Earth, some of which we haven't been able to observe," Mr Abdalati said.

Volcano raises new island far south of Japan

Smoke billows from a new island off the coast of Nishinoshima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, far south of Tokyo Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. 

The Japan Coast Guard and earthquake experts said a volcanic eruption has raised the new island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo. 

The coast guard issued an advisory Wednesday warning of heavy black smoke from the eruption. 

AP Photo/Kyodo News JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

A volcanic eruption has raised an island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo, the Japanese coast guard and earthquake experts said.

Advisories from the coast guard and the Japan Meteorological Agency said the islet is about 200 meters (660 feet) in diameter.

It is just off the coast of Nishinoshima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, which is also known as the Bonin Islands.

The approximately 30 islands are 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Tokyo, and along with the rest of Japan are part of the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire."

The coast guard issued an advisory Wednesday warning of heavy black smoke from the eruption. Television footage seen Thursday showed heavy smoke, ash and rocks exploding from the crater, as steam billowed into the sky.

A volcanologist with the coast guard, Hiroshi Ito, told the FNN news network that it was possible the new island might be eroded away.

"But it also could remain permanently," he said.

The last time the volcanos in the area are known to have erupted was in the mid-1970s. Much of the volcanic activity occurs under the sea, which extends thousands of meters deep along the Izu-Ogasawara-Marianas Trench.