Scientists warn important Antarctica ice bridge may collapse

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by William Atkins

Tuesday, 15 July 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! An ice bridge connecting Wilkins Ice Shelf and Charcot Island in Antarctica may collapse very soon. Its demise would likely doom the 9,000-square-mile (16,000-square-kilometer) ice shelf. Related stories Telstra signs first ADSL2 wholesale deal with People Telecom U.S. and Europe may explore Moon together Two more satellites boosted by Ariane 5 Ulysses ends magnificent mission for NASA ESA campaigning for new astronauts to Moon The European Space Agency’s Envisat remote-sensing satellite took images of the area using its Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR).    According to an ESA press release, the images by Envisat showed that the Wilkins Ice Shelf is "hanging by its last thread" to Charcot Island, which is one of the plate's critical anchors to the Antarctic peninsula. [AFP: “Antarctic ice shelf 'hanging by thread': European scientists”] The ESA report went on to state, as reported by AFP: "Since the connection to the island... helps stabilise the ice shelf, it is likely the breakup of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk," In addition, David Vaughan, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, stated, "Wilkins Ice Shelf is the most recent in a long, and growing, list of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula that are responding to the rapid warming that has occurred in this area over the last fifty years." Vaughan adds, "Current events are showing that we were being too conservative, when we made the prediction in the early 1990s that Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within thirty years -- the truth is it is going more quickly than we guessed." [United Press International: “Antarctic ice bridge near collapse”] According to the July 12, 2008 article by UPI, “The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a plate of floating ice on the Antarctic Peninsula that is connected to Charcot and Latady Islands. Matthias Braun from the Center for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces at Bonn University estimates about 838 square miles of ice have broken-off from the shelf in recent months.” Additional information on the breakup of other Antarctic ice shelves is provided on page two, along with a slide show on the continuing demise of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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