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HOME > SCITECH

Huge Antarctic Ice Sheet on Verge of Collapse

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

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AP/British Antarctic Survey

An image of the Wilkins Ice Shelf disintegration
taken from the British Antarctic Survey's Twin Otter aircraft reconnaissance
flight.

An image of the Wilkins Ice Shelf
disintegration taken from the British Antarctic Survey's Twin Otter aircraft
reconnaissance flight.

Satellite images reveal that a large chunk of the Wilkins ice shelf
fell into the ocean sometime around the end of February, suggesting that climate
change could be causing it to disintegrate faster than scientists had
predicted.

The 160-square-mile piece, about seven times the size of Manhattan, had been
attached to Antarctica for hundreds, or maybe even 1,500 years.

Scientists fear that the entire Wilkins shelf, more than 6,000 square miles,
could be next.

• Click
here to visit FOXNews.com's Natural Science Center.

British Antarctic Survey researcher David Vaughan blamed global warming for
the smaller piece's disintegration.

Satellite images of the initial breakaway on Feb. 28 were noticed within
hours, and scientists diverted satellite cameras and even flew an airplane over
the ongoing collapse for rare pictures and video.

"It's an event we don't get to see very often," said Ted Scambos, lead
scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. "The cracks
fill with water and slice off and topple... That gets to be a runaway
situation."

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While icebergs naturally break away from the mainland, collapses like this
are unusual but are happening more frequently in recent decades, Vaughan said.
The collapse is similar to what happens to hardened glass when it is smashed
with a hammer, he said.

The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice.
Scientists worry that it too may collapse.

Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995.

Vaughan had predicted the Wilkins shelf would collapse about 15 years from
now. The part that recently gave way makes up about 4 percent of the overall
shelf, but it's an important part that can trigger further collapse.

There's still a chance the rest of the ice shelf will survive until next year
because this is the end of the Antarctic summer and colder weather is setting
in, Vaughan said.

Scientists said they are not concerned about a rise in sea level from the
latest event, but say it's a sign of worsening global warming.

Such occurrences are "more indicative of a tipping point or trigger in the
climate system," said Sarah Das, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute.

"These are things that are not re-forming," Das said. "So once they're gone,
they're gone."

Climate in Antarctica is complicated and more isolated from the rest of the
world.

Much of the continent is not warming and some parts are even cooling, Vaughan
said.

However, the western peninsula, which includes the Wilkins ice shelf, juts
out into the ocean and is warming. This is the part of the continent where
scientists are most concern about ice-melt triggering sea level rise.

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