Piece of Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses; Global Warming Cited

WASHINGTON — A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said yesterday. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started February 28.

This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan. Because scientists noticed satellite images within hours, they diverted satellite cameras and even flew an airplane over the collapse for rare pictures and video. "It's an event we don't get to see very often," the lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., Ted Scambos, said.

The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice. Scientists worry that it too may collapse. Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995.