Break-up of the Wilkins Ice Shelf

Wilkins Ice Shelf has experienced further break-up with an area of about 160 km² breaking off. This animation, comprised of images acquired by Envisat’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) between 30 May and 9 June 2008, highlights the rapidly dwindling strip of ice that is protecting thousands of kilometres of the ice shelf from further break-up. This is the first ever-documented episode to occur in winter.