The Antarctic ice shelf is breaking apart from the inside

Last year, a massive 583-square-kilometre (225-square-mile) chunk of the Pine Island Glacier – a vast section of ice that holds the West Antarctic ice sheet together – broke free, heading out into the ocean to eventually melt and raise sea levels across the world.

Now, new evidence from satellite imagery suggests that this break was caused by a rupture in the shelf 32 kilometres (20 miles) inland, indicating that the glacier is actually breaking apart from the inside, and not the periphery, as scientists had long suspected.   Read more…