Antarctica's Conger ice shelf was weakening for decades before collapse, scientists find

Antarctica's Conger ice shelf was weakening for decades before collapse, scientists find

An international team of oceanographers, Antarctic specialists and meteorologists has found evidence that the collapse of Antarctica's Conger ice shelf in 2022 was due to ice melting and weakening that had progressed for decades.

An unexpected ice collapse hints at worrying changes on the Antarctic coast

The Conger Ice Shelf disintegrated in 2022. Satellite data leading up to the collapse hint at worrying changes in a supposedly stable ice sheet.

How an Antarctic ice shelf slowly collapsed

Australian and international scientists have documented the collapse of the Conger–Glenzer Ice Shelf in East Antarctica in 2022, charting its slow collapse over 25 years. The researchers identified four main stages of the ice sheet's retreat that started around 1997 when it became separated from the nearby Shackleton Ice Shelf. It then slowly got smaller and smaller, losing about 10% of its area over the next decade. In 2011, it broke away from …