UK Environmental news
 | Monday 11th May 2009 Antarctic Shelf loses city sized chunk The Wilkins ice shelf has suffered a collapse of over 270 square miles of ice in to the sea. The shelf which is situated on the west of the Antarctic Peninsula was seen as stable but has begun to degenerate over the last few decades. The European Space Agency have released dramatic images that show huge slabs of ice breaking from the shelf. This has further weakened the northern ice front and several new cracks have appeared. This comes after a similar sized chunk broke away last month when an ice bridge linking the Antarctic Peninsula so Charcot island shattered. This ice bridge was generally regarded as the pin holding the Wilkins shelf in position. This deterioration is widely regarded as an effect of global climate change, with further large scale reduction in Antarctic ice predicted in the near future. There has been a temperature rise of approximately 3 degrees Celsius in the area in the last century. |
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