Antarctic ice shelf breaks apart

An Antarctic ice shelf that was 200 metres thick and with a surface area of 3,250 square kilometers has broken apart in less than a month.

This is the largest single event in a series of retreats by ice shelves in the peninsula over the last 30 years

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) predicted in 1998 that several ice shelves around the peninsula were doomed because of rising temperatures in the region - but the speed with which the Larsen B has gone has shocked them.

"We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of it is staggering," said Dr David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the Bas in Cambridge, UK.

"[It is hard] to believe that 500 million billion tonnes of ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."