It's the fastest warming place on earth, and it's melting before our eyes.
The
Antarctic Peninsula is 160-square miles smaller today. A piece of ice seven times the size of Manhattan has fallen off the
Wilkins ice shelf in the western Antarctic Peninsula. Scientists first noticed a change in the ice on February 28, and it took less than one month for it to fall off into the ocean.
As explained on Wikipedia, "an
ice shelf is a thick, floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface." Antarctica is one of only three places in the world where ice shelves exist, the others being Greenland and Canada.
Ice shelves collapse when cracks fill up with water, then slice off and topple into the ocean.
The
British Anarctic Survey calls this collapse a sure sign of global warming.
What's worse is that the rest of Wilkins ice sheet is barely holding on, supported by one thin beam of ice. At 5,000-square miles -- or about the size of the state of Connecticutt -- the collapse of the entire ice sheet would be devastating. Scientists predict it though -- some within 15 years, others as soon as 2011.
Click this link for a
read the CNN article on the ice shelf collapse in Antarctica.
As explained on Wikipedia, "an ice shelf is a thick, floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface." Antarctica is one of only three places in the world where ice shelves exist, the others being Greenland and Canada.
Ice shelves collapse when cracks fill up with water, then slice off and topple into the ocean.
The British Anarctic Survey calls this collapse a sure sign of global warming.
What's worse is that the rest of Wilkins ice sheet is barely holding on, supported by one thin beam of ice. At 5,000-square miles -- or about the size of the state of Connecticutt -- the collapse of the entire ice sheet would be devastating. Scientists predict it though -- some within 15 years, others as soon as 2011.
Click this link for a read the CNN article on the ice shelf collapse in Antarctica.