Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Science Careers Booklet

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 9 February 1996:
Vol. 271. no. 5250, pp. 788 - 792
DOI: 10.1126/science.271.5250.788
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Rapid Collapse of Northern Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Helmut Rott,  Pedro Skvarca,  Thomas Nagler

In January 1995, 4200 square kilometers of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, broke away. Radar images from the ERS-1 satellite, complemented by field observations, showed that the two northernmost sections of the ice shelf fractured and disintegrated almost completely within a few days. This breakup followed a period of steady retreat that coincided with a regional trend of atmospheric warming. The observations imply that after an ice shelf retreats beyond a critical limit, it may collapse rapidly as a result of perturbated mass balance.


H. Rott and T. Nagler, Institut für Meteorologie und Geophysik der Universität Innsbruck, Innrain 52, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
P. Skvarca, Instituto Antártico Argentino, Cerrito 1248, 1010 Buenos Aires, Argentina.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets.
A. Shepherd and D. Wingham (2007)
Science 315, 1529-1532
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Retreating Glacier Fronts on the Antarctic Peninsula over the Past Half-Century.
A. J. Cook, A. J. Fox, D. G. Vaughan, and J. G. Ferrigno (2005)
Science 308, 541-544
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Larsen Ice Shelf Has Progressively Thinned.
A. Shepherd, D. Wingham, T. Payne, and P. Skvarca (2003)
Science 302, 856-859
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Holocene history of the Larsen-A Ice Shelf constrained by geomagnetic paleointensity dating.
(2003)
Geology 31, 749-752
Glacier Surge After Ice Shelf Collapse.
H. De Angelis and P. Skvarca (2003)
Science 299, 1560-1562
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Sedimentation associated with Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves: implications for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of glacimarine sediments.
J. Evans, J. Evans, and C. J. Pudsey (2002)
Journal of the Geological Society 159, 233-237
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Calving glaciers.
C. J. van der Veen (2002)
Progress in Physical Geography 26, 96-122
   Abstract »    PDF »
First survey of Antarctic sub-ice shelf sediments reveals mid-Holocene ice shelf retreat.
(2001)
Geology 29, 787-790
Bi-polar ocean linkages: evidence from late-Holocene Antarctic marine and Greenland ice-core records.
E. W. Domack and P. A. Mayewski (1999)
The Holocene 9, 247-251
   Abstract »    PDF »
Pleistocene Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
R. P. Scherer, A. Aldahan, S. Tulaczyk, G. Possnert, H. Engelhardt, and B. Kamb (1998)
Science 281, 82-85
   Abstract »    Full Text »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)