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Satellite images, showing Antarctica's Wilkins Ice Shelf as it begins to break up, are seen in this undated handout. Satellite images show that a large hunk of the shelf has started to collapse in a fast-warming region of the continent, scientists said on March 25, 2008. The images were processed from the MODIS satellite sensor flying on NASA's Earth Observing System Aqua and Terra satellites.
(Reuters)

Big chunk of Antarctic ice shelf falling apart
Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun disintegrating under the effects of global warming, satellite images by the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center showed.

The collapse of a substantial section of the shelf was triggered February 28 when an iceberg measuring 41 by 2.4 kilometers (25.5 by 1.5 miles) broke off its southwestern front.

That movement led to disintegration of the shelf's interior, of which 414 square kilometers (160 square miles) have already disappeared, scientists say.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad plate of permanent floating ice 1,609 kilometers (1,000 miles) south of South America, on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula.

Now, as a result of recent losses, a large part of the 12,950 square kilometer (5,000 square mile) shelf is supported by a narrow 5.6 kilometer (3.5 mile) strip of ice between two islands, scientists said.

"If there is a little bit more retreat, this last 'ice buttress' could collapse and we'd likely lose about half the total ice shelf area in the next few years," NSIDC lead scientist Ted Scambos said in a statement.

"Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on West Antarctica yet to be threatened. This shelf is hanging by a thread," echoed David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey, which contributed data on the break-up.