Huge ice chunks break away from Antarctic shelf

Massive ice chunks are crumbling away from a shelf in the western Antarctic Peninsula, researchers said Wednesday, warning that 1,300 square miles of ice

But the 127-square-mile (330-square-kilometer) bridge lost two large chunks last year and then shattered completely on April 5.

“As a consequence of the collapse, the rifts, which had already featured along the northern ice front, widened and new cracks formed as the ice adjusted,” the European Space Agency said in a statement Wednesday on its Web site, citing new satellite images.

AP