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Antarctica Continues To Break Apart
28 / 3
 
http://overheating.blogspot.com/2008/03/antarctica-continues...
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1greenthumb
50 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 17 hours agoA chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has broken away from Antarctica in what scientists believe is further evidence of a warming climate. To put that into perspective the Isle of Man is about 221 square miles!
Satellite images suggest that some of the adjoining ice shelf will collapse in the next few days or weeks. The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.
"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."
Jim Elliott, who was on board the plane, said he had never seen anything like it before.
Tags: climate change, Antarctica
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