Another disintegration occurred during the Southern Hemisphere winter. One Wilkins disintegration unfolded in mere hours. Both surface meltwater and seawater seeping into the porous snow on top of the ice shelf contributed to the decreasing stability.Ĭompared to the Larsen Ice Shelf, the Wilkins has lost less ice, but its disintegration activity has still caused concern among researchers because of its rapidity, and the possibility that the processes that drove the rapid break-ups will spread to other ice shelves as climate warms around the Antarctic coast. Similar to the Larsen Ice Shelf, the Wilkins Ice Shelf has experienced a series of rapid disintegrations in the past few decades.ĭriven by warming temperatures, the disintegrations resulted from years of increased surface melting, and a persistent layer of warm ocean water under the shelf. Like the Larsen Ice Shelf, the Wilkins Ice Shelf lies in the Antarctic Peninsula region, but the Wilkins lies southwest of the Larsen, and in fact is attached to large offshore islands on the west side of the peninsula. Most of the continent’s ice sheet ends in one of these ice extensions that floats on the surrounding ocean water. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is one of many thick slabs of ice that cling to Antarctica’s coast. Exchange for Observations and Local Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA).
#Snow totals colorado archive
NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC).Greenland Today & Antarctic Ice Sheet Today.A part of CIRES at the University of Colorado Boulder
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