NASA: One Of The Largest Ice Shelves Of Antarctic May Collapse By 2020

One of the largest ice shelves of Antarctica is melting beneath and above the sea, according to a new research. The ice shelf partly folded in 2002, is certain to disintegrate utterances by 2020.

Researchers added that this remnant now faces its "approaching demise." In a statement, NASA noted that the ice shelf "it is likely to disintegrate completely before the end of the decade."

"What might happen is that for a few years, we will have the detachment of big icebergs from this remaining ice shelf, and then at one point, one very very warm summer, when you have lots of melting of the surface, the whole thing will just give way, and will shatter into thousands of smaller icebergs," says the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Ala Khazendar, lead author of the new study.

"The final phase of the demise of LBIS [Larsen B ice shelf] is most likely in progress," the researchers conclude. "The weakening of the remnant ice shelf is manifested by its acceleration, front retreat, enhanced fracture including the rapid widening of a large rift close to the grounding line [where the ice shelf is moored on the seafloor] and possibly the detachment of the stagnant part of the ice shelf from neighboring grounded ice."

The study was published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.