Larsen Ice Shelf

The Larsen Ice Shelf is a series of ice shelves along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, segmented A through D from north to south, whose recent disintegrations are textbook cases of ice-shelf collapse. Larsen A broke up in January 1995. Larsen B underwent rapid disintegration between 31 January and March 2002, shedding about 2,717 square kilometers in five weeks, with surface meltwater hydrofracturing the shelf into a fleet of small icebergs. Larsen C calved iceberg A-68, roughly 5,800 square kilometers, in July 2017. After each collapse the unbuttressed glaciers behind Larsen A and B accelerated three- to eightfold, raising land-ice discharge and sea level.