Antarctic Ice Shelves are Melting Due to Decades of Higher Temperatures

Two ice shelves on the Antarctic known as the Larsen B and the Wilkins are in "full retreat" and have lost nearly 3,000 square kilometers if their total area in the last year according to scientists in Colorado and the United Kingdom. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center and the British Antarctic Survey attribute the retreats to a regional warming trend. The trend has caused the annual melt …

…and the British Antarctic Survey concur that ice shelf breakup is a direct result of local climate warming. The recent warming trend has led to greater amounts of ponding melt on the shelf, weakening it. Melt water at the surface acts to increase the extent of fracturing in the ice. The weight of the water essentially forces the cracks open, so a relatively small amount of climate warming can destroy a large, centuries-old ice shelf