The last remaining section of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is quickly weakening and may disintegrate completely before the end of the decade amid warming climate, NASA has warned.
The study predicts that Larsen B Ice Shelf measured 11,512.5 square kilometres in January 1995. It went down to 6,664.04 square kilometres in February 2002 after the major disintegration, and a month later Larsen B was down to 3,462.81 square kilometres.
At present the Larsen B remnant is about 1,600.61 square kilometres, less than half the size of Rhode Island, the smallest US state.
The NASA study found the remnant of the 10,000-year-old Larsen B Ice Shelf is flowing faster, becoming increasingly fragmented and developing large cracks. Two of its tributary glaciers also are flowing faster and thinning rapidly.
Ice shelves are extensions of glaciers and function as barriers. Their disappearance means glaciers potentially will diminish more quickly, as well, increasing the pace at which global sea levels rise.
A team led by Ala Khazendar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, found evidence of the ice shelf flowing faster and becoming more fragmented. The flow is creating large cracks in the ice shelf.
"These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating," Khazendar said.
"Although it's fascinating scientifically to have a front-row seat to watch the ice shelf becoming unstable and breaking up, it's bad news for our planet."
The Larsen B Ice Shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years. "This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will be gone," Khazendar said.
The collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf seems to have been caused by a series of warm summers on the Antarctic Peninsula, which happen during what in the Northern Hemisphere are winter months. Those trends built up to a particularly warm summer in 2002, according to NASA.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory glaciologist Eric Rignot, who co-authored the paper, said the research gives insight into how ice shelves closer to the South Pole will react with the warming climate.
Study raises concerns over big, rapidly thinning Antarctic glacier.
"What is really surprising about Larsen B is how quickly the changes are taking place," Khazendar said. "Change has been relentless."
First quarter of 2015 the warmest on record.
