Melting continent

a substantial portion of the Antarctic 'ice shelf' could disappear before the end of the century, scientists report in Nature. They say that the collapse may happen without warning.

Global warming is responsible for the melting of ice shelves in Antarctica, reports a team headed by Christopher Doake from the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, uk. One of the two smaller, ice shelves have already disappeared in the area. The researchers have reported that the massive Larsen Ice Shelf on the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula is now melting, from the north southwards. They have made an attempt to understand why, when ice shelves go, they collapse rapidly.