Latest Latady Island Stories

A segment of an Antarctic ice shelf about the size of New York City has fallen into the sea this month following an ice bridge collapse, scientists said Tuesday.Satellite images depict the collapse of an ice bridge that previously connected Charcot Island to Antarctica.The ice bridge apparently collapsed on April 5, removing about 330 sq km of ice, according to the European Space Agency."As a consequence of the collapse, the rifts, which had already featured along the northern ice front,...

New rifts have developed on the Wilkins Ice Shelf that could lead to the opening of the ice bridge that has been preventing the ice shelf from disintegrating and breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula.The ice bridge connects the Wilkins Ice Shelf to two islands, Charcot and Latady. As seen in the Envisat image here acquired on 26 November 2008, new rifts (denoted by colorful lines and dates of the events) have formed to the east of Latady Island and appear to be moving in a northerly...

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is experiencing further disintegration that is threatening the collapse of the ice bridge connecting the shelf to Charcot Island. Since the connection to the island in the image center helps to stabilize the ice shelf, it is likely the break-up of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk.This animation, comprised of images acquired by Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) between 30 May and 9 July 2008, shows the break-up event which began...