Latest Wilkins Sound Stories

As ESA’s Envisat satellite marks ten years in orbit, it continues to observe the rapid retreat of one of Antarctica’s ice shelves due to climate warming. One of the satellite’s first observations following its launch on 1 March 2002 was of break-up of a main section of the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica – when 3200 sq km of ice disintegrated within a few days due to mechanical instabilities of the ice masses triggered by climate warming. Now, with ten years of observations...

Ice shelves are retreating in the southern section of the Antarctic Peninsula due to climate change. This could result in glacier retreat and sea-level rise if warming continues, threatening coastal communities and low-lying islands worldwide.Research by the U.S. Geological Survey is the first to document that every ice front in the southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula has been retreating overall from 1947 to 2009, with the most dramatic changes occurring since 1990. The USGS previously...

Extremely long waves could have initiated 2008 collapse eventsDepicting a cause-and-effect scenario that spans thousands of miles, a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and his collaborators discovered that ocean waves originating along the Pacific coasts of North and South America impact Antarctic ice shelves and could play a role in their catastrophic collapse.Peter Bromirski of Scripps Oceanography is the lead scientist in a new study published in the journal...

The European Space Agency says satellite images show icebergs have begun to calve from the northern front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica. ESA scientists said the images indicate the huge shelf has become unstable following the collapse three weeks ago of the ice bridge that linked the Antarctic mainland with Charcot Island. That ice bridge, said the ESA, effectively formed a barrier pinning back the northern ice front of the central Wilkins Ice Shelf. It collapsed April 5, removing...

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,...

According to the UN Environmental Program, an enormous breakaway piece of Antarctica's ice shelf could amplify the already significant effects of global warming in the region.The 40-kilometer (25-mile) ice bridge "“ which was the Wilkins Ice Shelf's last bridge to the coast "“ has now completely broken off and can be seen in satellite images as a free-floating island of ice roughly the size of Jamaica. Before it starting melting in the early 1990's, Wilkins Ice Shelf had an area of...

In an effort to prevent further environmental damage to Antarctica, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday urged tighter controls on cruise ships and tourists in the fragile region, Reuters reported.Clinton told participants of an international meeting on both the Antarctic and the Arctic that tourism increases to Antarctica need more regulations governing travel.She said the U.S. had submitted a resolution that would place limits on landings from ships carrying large numbers of...

An ice bridge in the Antarctic, which linked a shelf of ice the size of Jamaica to two islands, has collapsed.According to scientists, the rupture provides further evidence that climate change is occurring in the region.Researchers also fear that the Wilkins Ice Shelf, located on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, could be on the brink of breaking away.The bridge was regarded by scientists as an important barrier holding the shelf structure in place.The removal of the bridge will...

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is at risk of partly breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula as the ice bridge that connects it to Charcot and Latady Islands looks set to collapse. The beginning of what appears to be the demise of the ice bridge began this week when new rifts forming along its centre axis resulted in a large block of ice breaking away. The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images acquired on 2 April by ESA's Envisat satellite confirm that the rifts are quickly expanding...

A large ice shelf is near collapse in Antarctica, held together only by a small strip of ice as global warming continues to alter the map of the frozen continent."We've come to the Wilkins Ice Shelf to see its final death throes," glaciologist David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) told Reuters after his red Twin Otter plane landed near the shelf's narrowest section."It really could go at any minute," he said, adding that the ice bridge could linger weeks or...