Update Date: 2008/07/11 11:05 Zheng Shiyun
(AFP, Paris, 10th)

The European Space Agency (ESA) stated today that new evidence shows a floating ice shelf connected to Antarctica is significantly disintegrating, a concerning sign of global warming.

In a press release, the ESA mentioned that photos taken by the Envisat satellite reveal that the Wilkins Ice Shelf is "only connected by a thread" to the main support of the Antarctic Peninsula, Charcot Island.

The ESA said: "The connection to this island... helps stabilize the ice shelf, and the breaking of this ice bridge could endanger the remaining parts of the ice shelf."

For most of the past century, the Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable, covering an area of about 16,000 square kilometers, nearly the size of Northern Ireland, and only began to melt in the 1990s.

Since then, the ice shelf has been breaking off in large chunks. Two major fractures this year have left the ice shelf connected to Charcot Island and the nearby Latady Island by only an ice bridge about 2.7 kilometers wide.

The latest radar images from the Envisat satellite show that this bridge has developed cracks, and the connecting blocks of the ice shelf have started to break apart, producing many large icebergs.

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