Antarctic Ice Shelf Crumbles

Scientists say global warming has made huge Wilkins Ice Shelf unstable
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 30, 2009 1:53 AM CDT
Antarctic Ice Shelf Crumbles
A radar image taken this week shows the breaking away of the ice bridge of the Wilkins ice shelf in Antarctica.   (AP Photo/European Space Agency ESA)

A huge ice shelf in the western Antarctic has become unstable and is beginning to fracture into icebergs, the Telegraph reports. Images from space show that the Jamaica-sized Wilkins ice shelf has lost 270 square miles of ice in recent weeks. Scientists expect the "fragile and vulnerable" shelf to continue losing ice, and blame the changes on global warming.
(More Wilkins Ice Shelf stories.)

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