The Wilkins Ice Bridge, a thin sliver of ice, a 25 mile (40km) long bridge that was less than 0.6miles (0.9km) wide at its thinnest has shattered. The thin bridge, keeping in place thousands of icebergs and the remaining Wilkins Ice Shelf, has finally disintegrated.
The Wilkins Ice Shelf, half the size of Scotland, the size of Jamaica or about the size of Connecticut, is now attached to only one island rather than two and is now likely to accelerate its disintegration into numerous icebergs. It has been stable for the last 10,000 years, and certainly stable from 1930 onward until the early 1990s when it started to break-up. Now, what is left of the remaining 5,400 square miles (14,000 sq.kms) of ice will form into icebergs ranging in size from small houses to football stadiums.
Since the Wilkins Ice Shelf is already floating it won’t effect sea levels but it is a sure sign of global warming acceleration in the Antarctic. Further ice movement from the land to the ocean will now quicken since the ice shelf will no longer keep it in check. This land-based ice, when it enters the ocean, will lead to ocean level increases.
This is a significant indication of global warming effects at the Antarctic, a region that has warmed significantly faster than the global average, by as much as 2.5degrees Celsius since the 1950s.
ESA Webcam from Space: http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMWZS5DHNF_index_0.html
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