Massive Antarctic ice shelf may break away from coast soon

04 Apr 2009

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A massive ice shelf anchored to the Antarctic coast by a narrow and quickly deteriorating ice bridge could break away soon, the European Space Agency has warned. The Paris-based agency said satellite images show the bridge that connects the Wilkins Ice Shelf to Charcot and Latady Islands "looks set to collapse."

"The beginning of what appears to be the demise of the ice bridge began this week when new rifts" appeared and a large block of ice broke away, it said. The Wilkins Ice Shelf - which like the rest of Antarctic's ice sheet "was formed by thousands of years of accumulated and compacted snow" - had been stable for most of the last century before it began retreating in the 1990s, the statement said.

The shelf, which was originally of the size of Jamaica or the US state of Connecticut, is located on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which thrusts up from the continent toward the southern tip of South America.

Originally covering about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square kilometers), the ice shelf lost 14 per cent of its mass last year alone, the statement quotes a scientist Angelika Humbert of Germany's Munster University as saying. It is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

The ice shelf experienced a great amount of changes last year, the ESA said. In February 2008, the shelf dropped 164 square miles (425 square kilometers) of ice. In May it lost a 62-square-mile chunk. That meant the "bridge" of ice connecting Wilkins to the islands was just 984 yards wide at its narrowest location, the ESA said. Further rifts developed in October and November, said Humbert.

Scientist are examining whether global warming is behind the shelf's breakup, the statement said. Average temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula have risen by 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 degrees Celsius) over the past half century, the statement said - higher than the average global rise.

If the ice shelf breaks away from the peninsula, it will not cause a rise in sea level because it is already floating, scientists say. Some plants and animals may have to adapt to the collapse.

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