Jamaica sized ice shelf breaks free from Antarctica

An ice bridge linking a shelf of ice the size of Jamaica to an island in Antarctica has snapped.

Scientists suggest the collapse could mean that the Wilkins Ice Shelf is on the brink of breaking away, and that it provides evidence of global warming.

The shelf has been retreating since the 1990s, but scientists say this is the first time it has lost one of the connections that keeps it in place.

It broke off at the thinnest point of the 40-km (25-mile) strip of ice.

A European Space Agency satellite picture shows newly created icebergs floating in the sea on the western side of the Antarctic peninsula, which juts up from the continent towards South America’s southern tip.

Source: BBC – Ice bridge ruptures in Antarctic

Advertisements

CW Staff
CW Staff

In the late 80s I started investigating UFOs and crop circles and joined the CCCS (Centre for Crop Circle Studies) and a local group researching strange sightings and reports along the south coast of Dorset (UK). In the early ’90s I started my own research group called SPS (Strange Phenomena Studies), this was renamed in 2004 to Cryptoworld.

Articles: 760

2 Comments

  1. @Tim – guess there are always two sides to any story – I was more interested in the fact that a chunk of ice the size of Jamaica was capable of breaking free from Antarctica.

    Thanks for the links, will check them out.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *