Flows and glaciers are disappearing at an increasing rate

Jim Elliott / AFP / Getty

Recent Collapse
On March 25, 2008 a 160 square mile chunk of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antartica disintegrated. This loss, about 7 times the size of Manhattan, puts an even larger portion of the glacial ice shelf at risk.

How Much Longer?
British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughn predicted that the northern part of the Wilkins ice shelf would likely collapse 15 years from now. About 4% of the shelf now collapsed and scientists discovered the rest of the shelf is beginning to break away from the continent.

Carl & Ann Purcell / Corbis

Captured Moment
Icebergs break off, or calve, from the Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Arm in southeast Alaska. The tallest known iceberg in the North Atlantic was about 551 feet above sea level, making it the height of a 55-story building. Despite their size, icebergs can move an average of about 10 miles a day.

Before
The 20-mile long Perito Moreno Glacier in Parque National Los Glaciares, Argentina, has a wall of ice that rises more than 230 feet above the water surface. Here it can be seen beginning to break down.

After
On March 14, 2004 the Perito Moreno Glacier broke down. If the pace of global ice loss accelerates, sea levels might conceivably rise 6 to 16 feet over the course of a century.

Uriel Sinai / Getty

Giant Thermometer
Icebergs float out of the Jacobshavn Fjord in Greenland. Scientists believe that Greenland, with its melting ice caps and disappearing glaciers, is an accurate thermometer of global warming.

Patrick Robert / Corbis

Rising Waters
Virtually everyone agrees that the complete disappearance of the 2-mile-thick Greenland Ice Sheet would cause an estimated 23-foot rise in global sea levels.

James L. Amos / Corbis

Increasing Annual Loss
Greenland Ice Sheet's annual loss has risen from 21.6 cubic miles in 1996 to 36 cubic miles in 2005.

Keren Su / Corbis

Calving
The Viedma Glacier in El Chalten, Argentina calved into Lake Viedma on January 27, 2006.

Paul Souders / Corbis

"Bergie Seltzer"
Melting water streams from iceberg calved from Ilulissat Kangerlua Glacier in Disko Bay, Greenland. When an iceberg melts, it makes a fizzing sound called "Bergie Seltzer." This sound is made when compressed air bubbles trapped in the iceberg pop.

 

Glaciers from the Edge
The Gurgler Glacier, near Obergurgl, in Austria, is receding, as indicated by the feathered edge, visible in the lower part of this photograph...

Disappearing from View
... And here it is from the inside. Swiss glaciologists estimate that the rate of glacier thinning and retreat is so great that alpine glaciers will have disappeared altogether in one hundred years.