The 40 kilometer ice bridge connecting the Wilkins Ice Shelf to Antarctica has broken off about a year after disintegration first began. An ice shelf is a portion of glacial ice that extends out from the land’s edge over the ocean. While the ice shelf (floating ice) will not raise sea level, the breakup of ice shelves may increase the speed at which land-based ice moves out to the ocean. Land-based ice does have the potential to raise sea level as it calves and melts.

Scientists believe that slightly warmer ocean water (due to climate change) melted the shelf from below and caused the breakup. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is located in the Antarctic Peninsula, which has experienced a 2.5 degree increase in air temperature over the past 50 years - the world’s greatest. A new study by the US Geological Survey and British Antarctic Survey mapped 174 ice coastlines in the area and counted 142 in retreat.