Antarctic ice shelf breaks up

(Source: News.com.au)

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,25292212-1702,00.html

AN ice bridge which had apparently held a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place during recorded history shattered yesterday and could herald a wider collapse linked to global warming, a leading scientist said.

"It's amazing how the ice has ruptured. Two days ago it was intact," David Vaughan, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey, said of a satellite image of the Wilkins Ice Shelfon the Antarctic Peninsula.

Potential Ice Shelf Collapse

(Source: Stuff) The Ross Ice Shelf, a raft of ice the size of France, could collapse quickly, triggering a dramatic rise in sea levels, scientists warn. A New Zealand-led drilling team in Antarctica has recovered three million years of climate history, but the news is not good for the future. Initial analysis of sea-floor cores near Scott Base suggest the Ross Ice Shelf had collapsed in the past and had probably done so suddenly.